When should we use file share in azure as compared to Azure Blobs?

Question

Could someone please tell some examples where we can use Azure file share in azure instead of Azure Blobs. In the internet whenever I search I get it can be mounted or it follows SMB protocol. But still I am not understanding a single case where we can use Azure File share.

For this I tried to look into When to use Azure blob storage versus Azure file share? -This is a similar question but doesn't answer my question.

Wingless

Answer 1

Azure provides a variety of storage tools and services, including Azure Storage. To determine which Azure technology is best suited for your scenario, see Review your storage options in the Azure Cloud Adoption Framework.

For detailed information and examples refer to this article: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-introduction

It depends mostly on your use-case and how you plan to access the data. If you simply want to mount and access your files Azure Files will be your best fit. If you are looking for the lowest cost and want to access your data programmatically through your application Azure Blob would be a better fit. Both are accessible through the portal or Azure Storage Explorer.

I also recommend this Learn module which covers the difference in data types and solutions.

Additional information: Azure Blob Storage vs Azure File Storage

Cost details of Azure Blob Storage pricing & Azure Files pricing

Rawinsonde

Answer 2

In short: if you ...

• have an application that needs to store or access files in the cloud, use Blob Storage
• need a file share that can be used by, for instance, a server, use File Shares

Azure Files shares can be mounted concurrently by cloud or on-premises deployments of Windows, Linux, and macOS. Azure Files shares can also be cached on Windows Servers with Azure File Sync for fast access near where the data is being used.

This means a File Share is, somewhat simplified, similar to a network share you would have in a local environment.

Azure Blob Storage helps you create data lakes for your analytics needs, and provides storage to build powerful cloud-native and mobile apps. Optimize costs with tiered storage for your long-term data, and flexibly scale up for high-performance computing and machine learning workloads.

This means Blob Storage is what you need when you're building powerful cloud-native and mobile apps.

Alesiaalessandra