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Azure Blob Storage

Score9.6 out of 10

83 Reviews and Ratings

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What is Azure Blob Storage?

Microsoft's Blob Storage system on Azure is designed to make unstructured data available to customers anywhere through REST-based object storage.

Categories & Use Cases

Reviews

What users are saying about Azure Blob Storage.
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Blob storage for central control.

Incentivized
Verified User
Professional in Information Technology (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Blob storage to share large files and public marketing material. Using blob storage is very easy; the access settings allow you to make files public so that anyone with the URL can access them, or they can be set as private and restricted. Using Blob storage allows us to keep control of the files at the source rather than leaving our estate as with external file-sharing systems. Using a vanity URL allows the link to look more user-friendly/professional.

Pros

  • Hosting large files.
  • Vanity URLs.
  • Temporary access.
  • Different levels of access to files.

Cons

  • Enumeration of folders is not possible.
  • Spaces in file names can be problematic.

Return on Investment

  • Meant that we did not need to seek a 3rd party alternative.
  • Central control of file storage and file hosting.
  • That staff come to IT rather than seek alternative products.

Usability

Alternatives Considered

OneDrive, Dropbox, FileShare, ShareFile and WeSend

Azure Blob Storage - It's worth using in your environment

Incentivized
Michael Ward
Sr Systems Administrator in Information Technology at USI (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Pros

  • Tiering - Hot/Cold/Archive.
  • It allows you to pay for the performance you need for the task at hand.
  • Easily consumed and accessed.

Cons

  • Expensive to egress your data, especially in a true DR scenario from cold or archive tier.

Return on Investment

  • Azure has increased the flexibility of where we place data within our organization.
  • It has proven to be very reliable and always accessible.

Cloud storage solution

Incentivized
Verified User
Manager in Information Technology (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Azure Blob Storage offers an S3-compatible API for storing files on the cloud. It is easy to use with good APIs and affordable.

It works well for storing static files and as a place to store/host attachments uploaded by users in the cloud.

It also is covered by the Microsoft Defender security product also offered by Azure which provides additional security including scanning for malware.

Pros

  • AWS S3-compatible API
  • Easy to use
  • Cost-effective
  • Secure

Cons

  • Web UI can be somewhat clunky

Most Important Features

  • Storage
  • Cloud native
  • Security

Return on Investment

  • Helps with migration to cloud platforms for web applications

Azure Blob Storage - a cost-effective and sensible option

Incentivized
Verified User
Contributor (501-1000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We used Azure Blob Storage as a staging ground for storing spreadsheet files needed for a forecasting model. We were looking for a cost-effective storage solution that could also accommodate different data types. Additionally, files that were not accessed frequently could be stored in archive storage, allowing more flexibility for the user.

Pros

  • Easy to work with - drag and drop
  • Capable of long term retention
  • Relatively low cost
  • Good for different data formats
  • Allows archival storage

Cons

  • UI needs improvement
  • Search for files can be slow
  • Additional details in documentation would be nice

Most Important Features

  • Cost
  • Easy to use
  • Security

Return on Investment

  • Sped up the development time
  • Less project costs as storage is cheap
  • Better security of data

Alternatives Considered

Google Cloud Storage and Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)

Other Software Used

Google Cloud Storage, Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service), Google BigQuery

Robust, Scalable and Secure Storage

Incentivized
Verified User
Consultant in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees employees)

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Azure Blob Storage as a centralized location for storing Customer's documents (attachment) specific to a lead/cases/complaints/customer 360 module implemented using Dynamics 365. We also Azure Blob Storage for storing customers' data, which we then use for generating Power BI Reports. Earlier these were stored either in the respective applications or some on-premise-based solutions.

Pros

  • Ease of use both through Azure Portal as well as API.
  • Cost-effective solution for storing a large amount of data compared to other storage solutions.
  • Scalability, Security, and Performance are the other key aspects of Azure Blob Storage that are easily manageable through Admin Console.

Cons

  • If we are transferring huge amount of data (outbound), it can get quite expensive.
  • With new features being added constantly, although a good thing, at times it becomes difficult to keep up with the changes. Documentation needs to keep UpToDate and should include best practices.
  • Performance can be improved especially when it comes to cold storage.

Most Important Features

  • Ease of use and access through application and API.
  • Performance, Scalability and Security.
  • Seamless integration with other Microsoft Products.

Return on Investment

  • Made it easy for organization to move to cloud from on-premise based solution.
  • We were able to centralize all our documents.
  • Cost savings compared to on-premise based solutions.

Other Software Used

Microsoft Dynamics 365 Marketing, Microsoft Power BI, Microsoft Power Automate (formerly Microsoft Flow)