Designing and Developing

Applications on the Cloud

CT071-3-3-DDAC & Version VC1

Introduction to Cloud Storage

 Topic & Structure of The
Lesson
• What is Cloud Storage
• Azure Cloud Services
• Blob Storage
• Queue Storage
• Table Storage
• Disk Storage

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 Learning
Outcomes

• At the end of this topic, You

should be able to
• Identify the Azure Cloud Storage services.
• Implement the cloud storage services into the
web application.

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 Key Terms You Must Be
Able To Use
• If you have mastered this topic, you should be able
to use the following terms correctly in your
assignments:
• Blob Storage
• Queue Storage
• Table Storage
• Replication

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 What is Cloud Storage?

• Cloud storage is a service that lets you store data by

transferring it over the Internet or another network to an
offsite storage system maintained by a third party.
• There are hundreds of different cloud storage systems
that include personal storage which holds and/or backs
up emails, pictures, videos, and other personal files of an
individual, to enterprise storage that lets businesses use
cloud storage as a commercially-supported remote
backup solution where the company can securely
transfer and store data files or share them between
locations.

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‹#›
 What is Cloud Storage?

• Storage systems are typically scalable to suit an

individual’s or organization’s data storage needs,
accessible from any location, and are application-
agnostic for accessibility from any device.
• Businesses can select from three main models:
– a public cloud storage service that suitable for unstructured data
– a private cloud storage service that can be protected behind a
company firewall for more control over data
– hybrid cloud storage service that blends public and private cloud
services together for increased flexibility.

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 Azure Storage services

• Azure Storage is Microsoft's cloud storage

solution for modern data storage scenarios.

• Azure Storage offers a massively scalable object

store for data objects, a file system service for
the cloud, a messaging store for reliable
messaging, and a NoSQL store.

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 Azure Storage services

• Azure Storage includes these data services:

– Azure Blobs: A massively scalable object store for text
and binary data.
– Azure Files: Managed file shares for cloud or on-
premises deployments.
– Azure Queues: A messaging store for reliable
messaging between application components.
– Azure Tables: A NoSQL store for schemaless storage
of structured data.

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 Azure Storage services

• Benefits of using Azure Storage:

– Durable and highly available.
– Secure & Scalable.
– Managed.
– Accessible.

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 Blob storage (Cont’)

• Azure Blob storage is Microsoft's object storage solution for the cloud. Blob
storage is optimized for storing massive amounts of unstructured data, such
as text or binary data.
• Blob storage is ideal for:
– Serving images or documents directly to a browser.
– Storing files for distributed access.
– Streaming video and audio.
– Storing data for backup and restore, disaster recovery, and archiving.
– Storing data for analysis by an on-premises or Azure-hosted service.
• Objects in Blob storage can be accessed from anywhere in the world via
HTTP or HTTPS. Users or client applications can access blobs via URLs,
the Azure Storage REST API, Azure PowerShell, Azure CLI, or an Azure
Storage client library. The storage client libraries are available for multiple
languages, including .NET, Java, Node.js, Python, PHP, and Ruby.

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 Blob service concepts
• Blob storage exposes three resources: your storage
account, the containers in the account, and the
blobs in a container.

• The following diagram shows the relationship between

these resources.

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 Blob service concepts (Cont’)

• Storage account
 All access to data objects in Azure Storage happens
through a storage account.

• Container
 A container organizes a set of blobs, similar to a
folder in a file system. All blobs reside within a
container. A storage account can include an unlimited
number of containers, and a container can store an
unlimited number of blobs.

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 Azure Files

• Azure Files enables you to set up highly available

network file shares that can be accessed by using the
standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.
• That means that multiple VMs can share the same files
with both read and write access.
• You can also read the files using the REST interface or
the storage client libraries.

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 Azure Files (cont.)

• File shares can be used for many common scenarios:

– Many on-premises applications use file shares. This feature makes it
easier to migrate those applications that share data to Azure. If you
mount the file share to the same drive letter that the on-premises
application uses, the part of your application that accesses the file share
should work with minimal, if any, changes.
– Configuration files can be stored on a file share and accessed from
multiple VMs. Tools and utilities used by multiple developers in a group
can be stored on a file share, ensuring that everybody can find them,
and that they use the same version.
– Diagnostic logs, metrics, and crash dumps are just three examples of
data that can be written to a file share and processed or analyzed later.

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 Queue storage
• The Azure Queue service is used to store and
retrieve messages.
• Queue messages can be up to 64 KB in size,
and a queue can contain millions of messages.
• Queues are generally used to store lists of
messages to be processed asynchronously.

• Common uses of Queue storage include:

 Creating a backlog of work to process asynchronously
 Passing messages from an Azure web role to an Azure worker
role

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 Queue storage (Cont’)

Scenario example of using queue storage:

1. You want your customers to be able to upload pictures, and you
want to create thumbnails for each picture. You could have your
customer wait for you to create the thumbnails while uploading the
pictures.
2. An alternative would be to use a queue. When the customer
finishes his upload, write a message to the queue. Then have an
Azure Function retrieve the message from the queue and create
the thumbnails.

Each of the parts of this processing can be scaled

separately, giving you more control when tuning it for your
usage.

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 Table Storage

• Azure Table storage is a service that stores

structured NoSQL data in the cloud, providing a
key/attribute store with a schemaless design.
• Because Table storage is schemaless, it's easy
to adapt your data as the needs of your
application evolve.
• Access to Table storage data is fast and cost-
effective for many types of applications, and is
typically lower in cost than traditional SQL for
similar volumes of data.

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 Table Storage (Cont’)

• Common uses of Table storage include:

 Storing TBs of structured data capable of serving web
scale applications
 Storing datasets that don't require complex joins,
foreign keys, or stored procedures and can be
denormalized for fast access
 Quickly querying data using a clustered index
 Accessing data using the OData protocol and LINQ
queries with WCF Data Service .NET Libraries

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 Table storage (Cont’)

• Azure Table storage is now part of Azure

Cosmos DB.
• In addition to the existing Azure Table storage
service, there is a new Azure Cosmos DB Table
API offering that provides throughput-optimized
tables, global distribution, and automatic
secondary indexes.

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 Table Storage Concept:

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 Disk storage

• Azure Storage also includes managed and

unmanaged disk capabilities used by
virtual machines.
• Types of storage accounts
Blob storage, hot
Type of storage General-purpose General-purpose and cool access
account Standard Premium tiers

Services supported Blob, File, Queue Blob Service Blob Service

Services

Types of blobs Block blobs, page Page blobs Block blobs and
supported blobs, and append append blobs
blobs

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 General-purpose storage
accounts
• There are two kinds of general-purpose storage
accounts.
• Standard storage
– The most widely used storage accounts are standard storage
accounts, which can be used for all types of data. Standard
storage accounts use magnetic media to store data.
• Premium storage
– Premium storage provides high-performance storage for page
blobs, which are primarily used for VHD files. Premium storage
accounts use SSD to store data. Microsoft recommends using
Premium Storage for all of your VMs.

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 Blob Storage accounts

• The Blob Storage account is a specialized storage

account used to store block blobs and append blobs.
• You can't store page blobs in these accounts, therefore
you can't store VHD files.
• These accounts allow you to set an access tier to Hot or
Cool; the tier can be changed at any time.
• The hot access tier is used for files that are accessed
frequently -- you pay a higher cost for storage, but the
cost of accessing the blobs is much lower.
• For blobs stored in the cool access tier, you pay a higher
cost for accessing the blobs, but the cost of storage is
much lower.
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 Accessing your blobs, files,
and queues
• Each storage account has two authentication
keys, either of which can be used for any
operation.
• There are two keys so you can roll over the keys
occasionally to enhance security.
• It is critical that these keys be kept secure
because their possession, along with the
account name, allows unlimited access to all
data in the storage account.

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 Encryption
• There are two basic kinds of encryption available for the
Storage services.
• Encryption at rest
– Azure Storage Service Encryption (SSE) at rest helps you
protect and safeguard your data to meet your organizational
security and compliance commitments.
• Client-side encryption
– The storage client libraries have methods you can call to
programmatically encrypt data before sending it across the wire
from the client to Azure. It is stored encrypted, which means it
also is encrypted at rest. When reading the data back, you
decrypt the information after receiving it.

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 Replication
• In order to ensure that your data is durable, Azure
Storage replicates multiple copies of your data. When
you set up your storage account, you select a replication
type. In most cases, this setting can be modified after the
storage account has been created.
• Replication options for a storage account include:
– Locally-redundant storage (LRS): The simplest, low-cost replication
strategy that Azure Storage offers.
– Zone-redundant storage (ZRS): A simple option for high availability and
durability.
– Geo-redundant storage (GRS): Cross-regional replication to protect
against region-wide unavailability.
– Read-access geo-redundant storage (RA-GRS): Cross-regional
replication with read access to the replica.

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 Quick Review Question

• Explain what is Cloud Storage.

• Give 3 data services that commonly

provided by Azure Cloud Storage.

• Discuss the common use scenarios for

each of the data services above.

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Summary of Main Teaching Points

- We have learnt the Azure Cloud Services

in this lesson.

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 Question and Answer
Session

Q&A

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 What we will cover next

• Introduction to Azure Cosmo DB

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