Azure Storage services: Blob vs Files vs Queue vs Table vs Disk
Verdict: Unstructured objects at scale, Blob. Mounted SMB or NFS file shares, Files. Async messages between components, Queue. Schemaless NoSQL entities, Table. Block volumes attached to a VM, Disk.
| Criterion | Azure Blob Storage | Azure Files | Azure Queue Storage | Azure Table Storage | Azure Disk Storage |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Data shape | Unstructured objects | File share | Messages | Structured NoSQL entities | Block volumes |
| Access | HTTP or HTTPS in a container | Mounted SMB or NFS | Enqueue and dequeue | Keyed entity lookups | Attached to a VM as drives |
| Choose when | Images, video, backups | Replace a file server, concurrent mount | Decouple front end from worker, trigger Functions | Telemetry and profiles, no joins | VM OS and data drives |
Rules
- Choose Blob Storage for large volumes of unstructured text or binary data; each file is a blob in a container and it scales massively.
- Choose Azure Files for fully managed SMB or NFS shares that cloud and on-premises hosts can mount at the same time.
- Choose Queue Storage to store messages for asynchronous processing between components; it frequently triggers Azure Functions.
- Choose Table Storage for large amounts of structured, non-relational data needing no joins, foreign keys or transactions.
- Choose Disk Storage for managed block-level volumes that attach directly to a VM as its operating-system and data drives.
Traps
- Queue Storage transports messages; it does not persist large structured record sets, which is Table Storage's job.
- A VM's boot and data drives need block-level Disk, not a Files network share or Blob objects.