Azure Blob vs Fileshare storage

Question

Hi pros,

As I read in MS doc, blob storage stores Unstructured Data and FileShare stores Structured Data. Now FileShare usually used as mount drive on On-prem or cloud VMs and in a drive, we can easily search for any file, so does this why it shows as structured data?

Also in blob, stored data can be access via a URL link finding data is not easy there, so does that why it shows as unstructured data?

To find the difference I created a text file. Both blob and FileShare were able to upload & store the text file, so where does this structured and unstructured data comes in difference while storing it to both the storages types? How do we know that this file can be stored in blob and that in FileShare?

Thanks

Answer 1

@Biswajeet Kumar
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. So if this is all you need to do Blob would be the lower cost option.

That being said you should read through the page here which gives many examples. I also recommend this Learn module which covers the difference in data types and solutions. Let me know if you still have questions or need further clarification.

-------------------------------

Please don’t forget to "Accept the answer" and “up-vote” wherever the information provided helps you, this can be beneficial to other community members.