Microsoft Applied Skills: Azure Files and Azure Blob Storage

Sign up for a free Azure account, claim 200 U.S. dollars credit and 12 months of free services, and explore the Azure portal to manage storage accounts.

Learn to quickly create a storage account by selecting a subscription, creating or using a resource group, naming the account, selecting a region, and reviewing deployment before viewing results.

Create a storage container, upload an image, and manage resources by deleting the container or the resource group while navigating Azure and understanding blob storage.

Create a storage account named StorageAcc914 in a new resource group RG914, add a container called container2, upload Photo2, then delete the container and the resource group RG914.

Compare standard general purpose v2 and premium storage in Azure. Learn when to use block blobs versus file shares for latency-sensitive workloads, noting premium's lower latency from solid-state drives.

Explore data redundancy options in Azure Files and Blob Storage, including LRS, ZRS, GRS, GZRS, and read-access variants, with distinctions across standard and premium tiers and regional coverage.

Explore the Azure storage security settings in the Advanced tab, including transport layer security, TLS 1.2, anonymous access controls, storage account key access, and SAS expiry options.

Explore the blob access tiers—hot, cool, cold, and archive—and compare their storage and read costs, minimum storage durations, and read-time implications, including rehydration delays and lifecycle management.

Examine networking and data protection for Azure storage, focusing on public access, virtual networks, and private endpoints, plus features like Azure Backup for blobs, point-in-time restore, soft delete, and versioning.

Explore azure storage encryption options, including Microsoft-managed and customer-managed keys via Azure Key Vault or HSM, with user-assigned identity and encryption scopes.

Practice configuring an azure storage account with settings, choosing geo-redundant storage, enabling anonymous container access, enabling infrastructure encryption, setting blob soft delete to 21 days, and restricting access through networks.

Explore blob access tiers in a storage account, set a default tier, override per blob, and switch among hot, cool, cold, and archive while noting rehydration and charges.

Discover how data management lifecycle management automates blob tier changes by applying rules to all blobs or specific containers, moving items to cool, cold, archive, or delete after set days.

Explore blob soft delete and permanent delete for soft deleted items within a seven-day retention, and note that permanent deletion isn’t available in the GUI, requiring code.

Learn blob versioning in Azure storage, preserve previous versions, and apply lifecycle rules to move or delete them. View, restore, and download versions, including making a previous version current.

Guides you through creating an Azure storage account in a new resource group, uploading and managing a blob, enabling versioning and soft delete, and applying a 90-day lifecycle rule.

Object replication copies blobs asynchronously from a source storage account to a destination account using a replication rule that maps source to destination containers.

Set up container level data retention policies in Azure blob storage, using time-based retention or legal hold to prevent modifications or deletions, with optional version-level immutability and append rights.

Create and manage a file share in Azure storage by selecting a tier, configuring directories, uploading files, and using snapshots and backups.

Learn how Azure storage encrypts data at rest with 256-bit AES, using Microsoft managed or customer managed keys via key vaults and identity types.

Enable infrastructure encryption as a second layer at the container level via an encryption scope, using Microsoft-managed or customer-managed keys; apply per container, not at the account level.

Create two storage accounts in RG921, establish containers and replication, enable time-based retention with version level immutability, set up a file share backup, apply infrastructure encryption, and clean up.

Enable blob anonymous access at the storage account, then change container access level to blob to allow anonymous reads of blobs while container data remains inaccessible.

Learn why storage account access keys grant full access, see key rotation in action, and explore connecting with Azure Storage Explorer before SAS is introduced.

Learn to create and use shared access signatures (sas) for blob, container, and account levels, with permissions, start and end times, IP restrictions, and https only.

Switch storage authentication from access key and SAS to Microsoft Entra ID via IAM. Assign Storage Blob Data Owner, Reader, or Contributor roles to users or managed identities for containers.

Create a virtual network, add a Microsoft.Storage service endpoint, and enable access from selected virtual networks and IP addresses to secure storage.

Configure a private endpoint to access Azure Storage from your virtual network using a private IP, eliminating public internet exposure and enhancing security beyond service endpoints.

Create a storage account and container, enable anonymous access, rotate keys, generate a SAS, grant read access with Microsoft Entra, restrict to a virtual network, then delete the resource group.

Build and validate storage skills for Azure Files and Azure Blob Storage by taking Applied Skills assessments, practicing with guided projects and interactive labs, and reviewing encryption and networking configurations.

Review how to create and configure a storage account, blob storage, and Azure files, with encryption and networking, then practice to sit the exam and earn Microsoft Applied Skills credential.