Moving Large Files

3 options:

• Using Storage Explorer
• Azure Copy
• Import/Export jobs service (recommended for very large data transfers)

Import/Export Jobs Service

You can find this in the Home section on Azure portal. From here you can create import/export jobs

Export

If you export using this option Microsoft will ship your data to you on a HDD.

Import

With this option Microsoft sends you an empty HDD and you put the data onto it, then ship it back.

All data in the import and export jobs is AES encrypted on the disks.

Azure Data Box

The service is called “Azure Data Box” and you can find more about it here: https://azure.microsoft.com/en-au/services/databox/#:~:text=Data%20Box%20devices%20easily%20move,copy%20tools%20such%20as%20Robocopy.

There are different options in the sizes of disks Microsoft will send you:

• Data Box Disk: 8TB SSD with 128 bit encryption. Comes in packs of up to 5 for a total of 40TB.
• Data Box: 100 TB capacity with AES 256 bit encryption
• Data Box Heavy: up to 1 PB capacity

Blob Storage

You setup Blob storage accounts in the same way you setup the General storage accounts.

Azure Blob storage is a feature of Microsoft Azure. It allows users to store large amounts of unstructured data on Microsoft’s data storage platform. In this case, Blob stands for Binary Large Object, which includes objects such as images and multimedia files.

“A few differences between Blob and General Purpose Storage Accounts:

• Blob storage account only support blobs while General purpose storage accounts support blobs, files, queues & tables (some exception apply – please see note about replication below). So if you ever need these additional services, you may want to choose general purpose accounts over blob accounts.
• Blob storage account only supports block and append blobs while General purpose storage accounts support block, append & page blobs (some exception apply – please see note about replication below). So if you need to create virtual machines, you would want to choose general purpose accounts over blob accounts.
• Blob storage accounts support both Hot and Cool access tier while General purpose storage accounts only support Hot access tier. So if you need to use Cool access tier i.e. use storage primarily for near-shore archiving, you would want to choose blob accounts over general purpose accounts.”

From: https://stackoverflow.com/questions/44164065/azure-storage-account-general-purpose-vs-blob-storage

CDN (Content Delivery Network)

CDN is a service offered by Azure that is a better way of serving static files to users around the world, eg: through a website.

The is from Microsoft:

“The Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN) is designed to send audio, video, images, and other files faster and more reliably to customers using servers that are closest to the users. This dramatically increases speed and availability, resulting in significant user experience improvements.“

You find CDN in the portal by going to “Home -> Mareket place -> CDN”

Creating a CDN

When creating a CDN you choose the following:

• Name
• Subscription
• Resource Group (if creating a new one here you cant choose the location as the service is Global)
• Pricing tier: There are 4 different pricing tiers. All have the same basic functions, but the more expensive has some extra features such as alerts and “customisable rule based content delivery engine” (this allows you to do things like server higher quality video to users on desktop but lower quality to users on mobile devices).
• Create a New CDN Enpoint: this allows you to link your CDN to an existing Storage account and blob

For more information on the different plans: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-au/azure/cdn/cdn-features