What is Azure Storage?
Azure Storage is a cloud storage platform offering multiple storage services — all accessed via HTTP/HTTPS REST APIs from anywhere in the world. It is:
- Durable — Data is replicated multiple times (3–6 copies depending on redundancy option)
- Highly available — 99.9% to 99.99% SLA depending on redundancy
- Massively scalable — Store petabytes of data, handle millions of requests per second
- Secure — Encrypted at rest (AES-256) and in transit (TLS) by default
- Cost-effective — Pay only for what you store and transfer
The Storage Account
A Storage Account is the top-level container for all Azure Storage services. Every storage resource (blob container, file share, queue, table) lives inside a storage account. Think of it as a namespace — a unique endpoint in Azure under which all your storage data lives.
Storage Account Naming
Storage account names must be globally unique across all of Azure (not just your subscription). They must be 3–24 characters, lowercase letters and numbers only — no hyphens or special characters. Example:
mystorageaccount2026
Storage Account Endpoints
Each storage account gets unique endpoints for each service:
| Service | Endpoint Format |
|---|---|
| Blob Storage | https://[accountname].blob.core.windows.net |
| File Storage | https://[accountname].file.core.windows.net |
| Queue Storage | https://[accountname].queue.core.windows.net |
| Table Storage | https://[accountname].table.core.windows.net |
The Four Core Storage Services
| Service | What It Stores | Best For |
|---|---|---|
| Blob Storage | Unstructured data — files, images, videos, backups | Object/file storage for any data type |
| File Storage | File shares accessible via SMB or NFS protocol | Shared file system for VMs and apps |
| Queue Storage | Messages between application components | Decoupling microservices and async processing |
| Table Storage | Structured NoSQL key-value data | Simple structured data without complex queries |
Storage Account Types
Azure offers several storage account types — choose based on what you need to store:
| Account Type | Supported Services | Use Case |
|---|---|---|
| Standard general-purpose v2 | Blob, File, Queue, Table | Most workloads — recommended default |
| Premium block blobs | Blob only (block blobs) | High-performance blob workloads, low latency |
| Premium file shares | File only | High-performance file shares (SMB/NFS) |
| Premium page blobs | Blob only (page blobs) | VM disks (legacy — use Managed Disks instead) |
Default Choice
For 90% of use cases, use Standard general-purpose v2. It supports all four storage services and all redundancy options. Only use Premium accounts when you have specific high-performance requirements.
Redundancy Options
Azure Storage always stores multiple copies of your data to protect against failures. You choose how and where those copies are stored:
| Option | Copies | Where | Protects Against | Cost |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| LRS — Locally Redundant | 3 | Same data centre | Hardware failures within one DC | Lowest |
| ZRS — Zone Redundant | 3 | 3 AZs in same region | Data centre (zone) failures | Medium |
| GRS — Geo Redundant | 6 | Primary + paired region (LRS each) | Regional disasters | High |
| GZRS — Geo-Zone Redundant | 6 | 3 AZs primary + LRS paired region | Zone failures + regional disasters | Highest |
RA- Variants (Read Access)
GRS and GZRS also have read-access variants: RA-GRS and RA-GZRS. These allow reading from the secondary region even when the primary is healthy — useful for globally distributed read workloads.
Which Redundancy to Choose
| Scenario | Recommended |
|---|---|
| Dev/test, non-critical data | LRS — cheapest |
| Production data, region supports AZs | ZRS — zone-level protection |
| Critical data needing regional DR | GRS or GZRS |
| Compliance requiring geo-redundancy | GRS or GZRS |
Performance Tiers
| Tier | Storage | Latency | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|
| Standard | HDD-backed | Milliseconds | Most workloads, cost-sensitive |
| Premium | SSD-backed | Single-digit ms | High-performance, low-latency workloads |
Creating a Storage Account
Azure CLI
Create a storage account
# Create a Standard GPv2 storage account with ZRS
az storage account create \
--name mystorageaccount2026 \
--resource-group myResourceGroup \
--location centralindia \
--sku Standard_ZRS \
--kind StorageV2 \
--access-tier Hot| SKU Value | Redundancy |
|---|---|
| Standard_LRS | Locally Redundant Storage |
| Standard_ZRS | Zone Redundant Storage |
| Standard_GRS | Geo Redundant Storage |
| Standard_GZRS | Geo-Zone Redundant Storage |
| Standard_RAGRS | Read-Access Geo Redundant Storage |
Choosing the Right Storage Service
| You Need To... | Use |
|---|---|
| Store images, videos, documents, backups | Blob Storage |
| Share files between VMs (like a network drive) | File Storage |
| Pass messages between app components | Queue Storage |
| Store simple key-value structured data cheaply | Table Storage |
| Store VM disks | Managed Disks (not Storage Account) |
| Store relational data with complex queries | Azure SQL Database |
AZ-104 Exam Tip
Know the four storage services and what each stores. Know LRS/ZRS/GRS/GZRS and what each protects against. Know that storage account names must be globally unique, 3–24 chars, lowercase alphanumeric only.