One-Pager · 8 Services

Azure
Storage

Every Azure storage service on one page — blobs, files, disks, queues, and data lake. A quick reference for architects choosing a storage solution.

Object & File Storage

Blob Storage
Massively scalable object storage for unstructured data. Hot, Cool, Cold, and Archive tiers. Lifecycle management, immutability policies, versioning.
Unstructured dataMedia & backupsHot/Cool/ArchiveLifecycle mgmt
Data Lake Storage Gen2
Hierarchical namespace on top of Blob Storage. POSIX ACLs, atomic directory operations. Foundation for big data analytics with Spark, Databricks, Synapse.
Big dataAnalyticsHDFS compatiblePOSIX ACLs
Azure Files
Fully managed SMB and NFS file shares. Mount from cloud or on-premises. Azure File Sync for hybrid caching. AD DS authentication support.
File sharesLift & shiftSMB / NFSFile Sync
Azure NetApp Files
Enterprise-grade NFS/SMB file storage powered by NetApp. Sub-millisecond latency. SAP HANA, HPC, and database workloads.
Enterprise NASSAP HANASub-ms latencyNetApp

Disks & Specialized

Managed Disks
Block storage for Azure VMs. Ultra, Premium SSD v2, Premium SSD, Standard SSD, Standard HDD. Snapshots, encryption at rest, shared disks.
VM storageBlock storageUltra SSDSnapshots
Queue Storage
Simple message queue for decoupling components. Millions of messages, 64KB each. At-least-once delivery. Simpler alternative to Service Bus.
Message queueDecouplingSimple queuingAt-least-once
Table Storage
NoSQL key-value store for semi-structured data. Schemaless design, OData queries. Low cost for large datasets that do not need complex queries.
Key-valueSemi-structuredSchemalessLow cost
Elastic SAN
Fully managed iSCSI SAN in the cloud. Provision IOPS and throughput independently. Multi-attach for clustered workloads.
SAN workloadsiSCSIMulti-attachProvisioned IOPS

Quick Comparison

ServiceTypeProtocolBest ForMin Cost
Blob StorageObjectREST / SDKUnstructured data, media, backups$0.018/GB (Hot)
Data Lake Gen2Object + FSREST / HDFSBig data analytics, Spark/Databricks$0.018/GB (Hot)
Azure FilesFileSMB / NFSFile shares, lift & shift$0.06/GB (Hot)
NetApp FilesFileNFS / SMBEnterprise NAS, SAP, HPC$0.15/GB
Managed DisksBlockiSCSI (managed)VM OS/data disks$1.54/mo (S4)
Queue StorageQueueRESTSimple async messaging$0.0004/10K ops
Table StorageKey-ValueREST / ODataSemi-structured, low-cost NoSQL$0.045/GB
Elastic SANBlockiSCSISAN migration, clustered workloadsProvisioned