Azure Blob Storage vs. Azure Data Lake Storage

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Azure Blob Storage
Score 9.0 out of 10
N/A
Microsoft's Blob Storage system on Azure is designed to make unstructured data available to customers anywhere through REST-based object storage.
$0.01
per GB/per month
Azure Data Lake Storage
Score 8.5 out of 10
N/A
Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 is a highly scalable and cost-effective data lake solution for big data analytics. It combines the power of a high-performance file system with massive scale and economy to help you speed your time to insight. Data Lake Storage Gen2 extends Azure Blob Storage capabilities and is optimized for analytics workloads.N/A
Pricing
Azure Blob StorageAzure Data Lake Storage
Editions & Modules
Block Blobs
$0.0081
per GB/per month
Azure Data Lake Storage
$0.0081
per GB/per month
Files
$0.058
per GB/per month
Managed Discs
$1.54
per month
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Azure Blob StorageAzure Data Lake Storage
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Azure Blob StorageAzure Data Lake Storage
Best Alternatives
Azure Blob StorageAzure Data Lake Storage
Small Businesses
Amazon S3 Glacier
Amazon S3 Glacier
Score 9.1 out of 10
Amazon S3 Glacier
Amazon S3 Glacier
Score 9.1 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Google Cloud Storage
Google Cloud Storage
Score 9.0 out of 10
Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Google Cloud Storage
Google Cloud Storage
Score 9.0 out of 10
Azure Blob Storage
Azure Blob Storage
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Azure Blob StorageAzure Data Lake Storage
Likelihood to Recommend
10.0
(9 ratings)
8.2
(13 ratings)
Usability
8.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
9.0
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Azure Blob StorageAzure Data Lake Storage
Likelihood to Recommend
Microsoft
In Azure, it is the storage to use, and in my view, the Blob Storage offers more, or finer-grained configuration options, than S3. So my recommendation would be to check in detail what is offered. As the Blob Storage is more or less a Microsoft exclusive product, the "interoperability" is more limited than, for example, with S3. The S3 is more widely adopted, and if you cannot exclude a migration scenario from one cloud provider to another, additional effort is needed.
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Microsoft
Azure Data Lake is an absolutely essential piece of a modern data and analytics platform. Over the past 2 years, our usage of Azure Data Lake as a reporting source has continued to grow and far exceeds more traditional sources like MS SQL, Oracle, etc.
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Pros
Microsoft
  • 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.
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Microsoft
  • Setting up Azure Data Lake Storage account, container is quite easy
  • Access from anywhere and easy maintenance
  • Integration with Azure Data Factory service for end to end pipeline is pretty easy
  • Can store Any form of data (Structured, Unstructured, Semi) in faster manner
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Cons
Microsoft
  • Sometimes the behavior is nondeterministic (e.g. compare config via UI vs. terraform).
  • While it does some things better than S3, the interoperability in a migration scenario seems cumbersome.
  • The number of features/config options is overwhelming; we found the docs, etc., a bit hard to read.
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Microsoft
  • study for the certifications also to have them as a reference for work when you have any questions about applying a configuration to the equipment.
  • The Internet interface is simple and easy to use. Capacity is good and it's good that HP continues to innovate with this technology
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Usability
Microsoft
Blob storage is fairly simple, with several different options/settings that can be configured. The file explorer has enhanced its usability. Some areas could be improved, such as providing more details or stats on how many times a file has been accessed. It is an obvious choice if you're already using Azure/Entra.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Microsoft
Microsoft has improved its customer service standpoint over the years. The ability to chat with an issue, get a callback, schedule a call or work with an architecture team(for free) is a huge plus. I can get mentorship and guidance on where to go with my environment without pushy sales tactics. This is very refreshing. Typically support can get me to where I need to be on the first contact, which is also nice.
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Microsoft
No answers on this topic
Alternatives Considered
Microsoft
Azure Premium Blob offers better latency than competitors. It works best with the Azure ecosystem, and competitors lack it. Azure Blob even stands out in storage durability, providing up to 16 nines. It can have various use cases that can suit all the organisation's needs. The Azure Blob solution can also be deployed on-premises.
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Microsoft
Azure Data Lake Storage from a functionality perspective is a much easier solution to work with. It's implementation from Amazon EMR went smooth, and continued usage is definitely better. However, Amazon EMR was significantly cheaper overall between the high transaction fees and cost of storage due to growth. The two both have their advantages and disadvantages, but the functionality of Azure Data Lake Storage outweighed it's cost
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Return on Investment
Microsoft
  • Azure Blob has reduced our overall infrastructure cost.
  • With Azure Blob Storage, we don't need dedicated personnel to maintain storage and its related infrastructure.
  • Azure Blob Storage provides a one-stop storage solution for most of our business needs, allowing us to focus solely on the business.
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Microsoft
  • Instead of having separate pools of storage for data we are now operating on a single layer platform which has cut down on time spent on maintaining those separate pools.
  • We have had more of an ROI with the scalability as we are able to control costs of storage when need be.
  • We are able to operate in a more streamlined approach as we are able to stay within the Azure suite of products and integrate seamlessly with the rest of the applications in our cloud-based infrastructure
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ScreenShots