Azure Blob Storage: object storage basics
The container, blob, and access tier concepts when storing data on Azure.
Azure Blob Storage is Microsoft Azure’s object storage service — the equivalent of S3 on AWS.
Key concepts
- Storage account: the top-level management unit.
- Container: like a “folder” that holds blobs.
- Blob: the file itself (images, video, backups…).
Access tiers — pick the right one to save cost
- Hot: frequently accessed.
- Cool: infrequent access, stored at least 30 days.
- Archive: rarely accessed, cheapest but slow to restore.
Tip
Set a lifecycle policy to move old blobs to cheaper tiers automatically — big savings with no manual work.