PART 3: STORAGE SERVICES

3.1 Azure Blob Storage

Overview

Object storage for unstructured data.

Redundancy Options

Type	Description	Use Case
LRS	3 copies in one DC	Low cost
ZRS	Across zones	High availability
GRS	Geo-redundant	Disaster recovery
GZRS	Zone + geo	Best HA + DR

Access Tiers

Tier	Storage Cost	Access Cost
Hot	High	Low
Cool	Lower	Higher
Archive	Lowest	Highest

Blob Types

• Block Blobs
• Append Blobs
• Page Blobs

Security

• Encryption (AES-256)
• SAS tokens
• Immutable storage
• Soft delete
• Versioning

Lifecycle Management

Automatically move or delete data based on rules.

3.2 Azure Files

Overview

Managed file shares via SMB/NFS.

Tiers

• Premium
• Transaction Optimized
• Hot
• Cool

Key Features

• SMB & NFS support
• Azure File Sync
• Snapshots
• Soft delete

3.3 Azure Managed Disks

Overview

Persistent block storage for VMs.

Disk Types

Type	Use Case
Ultra Disk	Mission-critical DBs
Premium SSD v2	High-performance workloads
Standard SSD	General workloads
Standard HDD	Backup/low-cost

Features

• Snapshots
• Encryption
• Shared disks

3.4 Azure Data Lake Storage (ADLS Gen2)

Overview

Enterprise data lake with hierarchical namespace.

Key Features

• POSIX ACLs
• Hadoop compatible
• High-performance directory operations

Comparison

Feature	Blob	ADLS Gen2
Namespace	Flat	Hierarchical
Use Case	General storage	Big data

3.5 Azure Table Storage

NoSQL key-value store for simple lookups.

3.6 Azure Queue Storage

Message queue for async communication.

3.7 Azure NetApp Files

Enterprise-grade file shares with high performance.

3.8 Azure Data Box

Physical device for large-scale data transfer.

3.9 Azure Elastic SAN

High-performance SAN-like storage solution.