Currently, the most interesting type of storage for the IT professional is Azure File storage. File storage in Azure refers to cloud-based Server Message Block (SMB) or Common Internet File System (CIFS) such as that provided by traditional Windows or Samba fileservers. Like an SMB share, an Azure Storage share can be used from multiple computers and by multiple users simultaneously. The difference is that the users don't have to be connected to the company network anymore.
Azure file shares are commonly used for so called lift-and-shift migrations, where the on-premises app is basically copied to the cloud as-is. This is often fast and easy, but not always the most cost-efficient solution. Other scenarios are shares for diagnostics or debugging data, shared application files, or simply temporary storage:
In the preceding diagram, the different...