Storing data in Microsoft Azure provides significant benefits compared to deploying storage devices on your own premises. Using Azure Storage means your storage is:

• Scalable. With cloud storage, the capacity you need is available when you need it. Additional capacity is easily added on demand, without a lengthy provisioning process.
• Highly available and accessible. Cloud storage offers levels of redundancy and accessibility that can’t be matched in a small-scale data center. You can achieve greater levels of availability by storing data in the cloud’s multiple geographic regions. Microsoft Azure provides the maintenance and problem resolution support. Data can be accessed from anywhere via multiple SDKs and APIs.
• Secure. Microsoft ensures physical security of storage devices in Azure cloud. Data stored can be encrypted, and you can retain control over the encryption key. Use role-based access control to manage user privileges.
• Cost effective. Storage costs are based upon data volumes and redundancy levels. You’ll pay for what you need, without paying for excess spare capacity.

Storage Options on Microsoft Azure

Azure Storage offers multiple options, allowing you to select the storage that best meets your needs. Some of the data storage choices are delivered as Platform as a Service, where Microsoft provides full support for your data storage. Other options are delivered as Infrastructure as a Service, where you run and support your data tools on your virtual machines. You can choose to have either standard storage or premium storage, which uses solid-state drives to deliver high performance.

When you don’t need robust data querying, choose Azure Blob Storage, Azure Queue Storage, Azure File Storage, or Azure Disk Storage. While Azure Queue Storage is meant for message queues, the other three storage types are used to store files. Azure Disk Storage supports high rates of I/O and can be used to store VM disks. Azure File Storage can be mounted on VMs and is useful when migrating applications to cloud. Azure Blob Storage support general-purpose file storage.

To obtain the querying capability of a database, choose one of the many Azure DB services. These include Azure Cosmos DB, which is a non-relational database, and several relational options, including Azure SQL Database (effectively SQL Server in Azure), Azure Database for PostgresSQL, and Azure Database for MySQL.

Larger data stores can leverage Azure SQL Data Warehouse for relational data and Azure Data Lake Store for non-relational storage. While Azure SQL Database can also handle large volumes of data, it is optimized to support transactional processing, unlike Azure SQL Data Warehouse, which is optimized for reporting.

Set up the Azure Storage solution you need with assistance from Prescient Solutions. As Microsoft Partners, we’re experts in the full range of Microsoft Azure services. Contact us to learn how to choose and use Azure Storage effectively to support your business needs.