Item: Azure Blob Storage
Rating: 10
Author: Michael Ward

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Azure Blob storage is currently used in various ways at our company.

First, like cloud storage for various Azure SaaS platforms. Things like managed SQL instances and data lake storage for Azure AI / ML. It is useful in that it is tiered, so you can use hot tier for these use cases.

Secondly, a more common use is to use the cold and archive tiers as a cheap location to store long-term backups and archives. We think of it as a replacement for tape offloading in our DR strategy. One thing to be away from is that the cost to bring those backups/archives back from the cloud can be very high. So this is used more as a place of last resort for disaster recovery currently, but it definitely has its place.

Pros and Cons

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

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.

Alternatives Considered

Azure Blob is the only major cloud object storage platform that we use today.

Support Rating

The support is typical of any Microsoft product. They have the resources to employ knowledgeable support staff and getting support is not an issue.

Key Insights

Do you think Azure Blob Storage delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with Azure Blob Storage's feature set?

Yes

Did Azure Blob Storage live up to sales and marketing promises?

Yes

Did implementation of Azure Blob Storage go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy Azure Blob Storage again?

Yes

Likelihood to Recommend

Well suited for newly developed micro applications that need to access data in the cloud.

Well suited for being the storage layer for SaaS offerings within the Azure Service Catalog. The integration is usually built-in.

Well suited for backup storage target for long-term RPO objectives, when the expectation of actual retrieval need is very low.

Well suited for long-term offsite archival storage.

Well suited for emergency storage needs (burst storage) for an immediate need.

Not appropriate for data that has high amounts of ingress and egress churn.

Not appropriate for applications that require ultra-low latency response time from the storage layer.

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

Overall Satisfaction with Azure Blob Storage