5 Storage
This chapter covers
- Creating a storage account and using its features
- Creating blob, file, queue and table storage, uploading data, and storing it cost-effectively
- Understanding some best practices for using storage on Azure
Data is the life blood of any application, infrastructure or computing ecosystem. Data flows all the time, creating orders, passing on transactions, measuring user input and, oh, so much more. Where does all this data go though? When it finally comes to rest, the data is persisted in storage, which is the third pillar of cloud compute after compute and networking.
Storage is used in every part of Azure, whether explicitly or implicitly. Create a VM, and you will have a storage account to hold the files for it. Create a website using Azure App Services, and the files are in Azure storage. Write an Azure Function and the code and meta data is in storage. It is like the water of cloud computing. Whether you open the tap deliberately or use the leftover meat loaf from last night, it all has water in it. Yeah, that analogy works. Don’t argue.