Windows Azure storage is a cloud storage solution that abstracts physical storage and allows end users to build scalable applications. The Windows HDInsight service leverages Azure Blob storage but still provides all the HDFS command line and other programming interfaces.
Azure storage has the following characteristics:
Cost effective, as you only have to pay for what you use
Scalable and flexible, as you can scale up or down your application based on your business needs
Replicated based on your requirements either locally or geo-replicated at another distant data center
Highly available, as multiple replicas provide fault tolerance
Accessible via REST API
Let's take a look at how to manage and monitor your Azure storage.
