chapter nine

9 Optimizing storage

 

This chapter covers

  • Creating a free static website hosted in your storage account
  • Managing data inside the storage using AzCopy
  • Sharing access to data securely and with limitations
  • Using life cycle management to save costs and optimize data use

Let me start this chapter by saying this: no, you aren’t going mad; this really is another chapter on storage. While chapter 5 provided the fundamentals of storage on Azure by delving into the storage accounts and the types of data you can store there, we only scratched the surface of what you can do and what you should do. To use storage on Azure efficiently, we need to understand it further than just the foundations, which are indeed important, but not enough. It’s like learning to ride a bike and never taking the training wheels off. Yes, you can get along and eventually you’ll get there, but it’s slow and much harder to go around obstacles efficiently.

In this chapter, we dive into ways that you can save on cost, securely share access to your data, keep track of data versions, manage data life cycles, and much more. These are all important parts of Azure Storage usage and maintenance. Join me as we visit the weird world of banned technical literature again.

9.1 Banning Books dials up its storage game

9.2 Static website in Azure Storage

9.2.1 AzCopy

9.2.2 SAS tokens

9.2.3 $web folder and static website

9.2.4 Custom domain

9.3 Data protection

9.3.1 Blob version tracking

9.3.2 Azure Storage account lock

9.3.3 Soft delete

9.4 Object replication

9.4.1 Data redundancy and availability

9.4.2 Geo-distribution and latency reduction

9.5 Life cycle management

9.5.1 Tier transitioning

9.5.2 Cleaning up

Summary