Azure Storage Account for Tables

Question

So first of all I'd like to say I'm no DBA nor coder, I'm just a regular IT person that works as support for network and infrastructure, however, I like to get familiar with technologies in general and understand the basics of it, let's say how they work, implemented with no additional specific details.

I've been reading about Azure Storage Accounts in regards to tables. As IT, I had to implement simple file shares via SMB 3.0 in order to have them mapped on our network, I've come across other options such as blobs, tables and queues. I've read about them however I'm trying to get the main functionality of tables for a coder.

Correct me if I am wrong, when you code an app with a database, you can put the database on same/different server, and that can be on premise or on the cloud and you kind of link both together.

And as far as Im concerned and what I was able to find out investigating on the web, these tables are NoSQL and no constraints, you create the tables and data through Visual Studio thanks to an API, then that information is reflect on your storage.

How is this is useful when using it for the app you're developing?

Answer 1

I've been reading about Azure Storage Accounts in regards to tables. As IT, I had to implement simple file shares via SMB 3.0 in order to have them mapped on our network, I've come across other options such as blobs, tables and queues. I've read about them however I'm trying to get the main functionality of tables for a coder.

And as far as Im concerned and what I was able to find out investigating on the web, these tables are NoSQL and no constraints, you create the tables and data through Visual Studio thanks to an API, then that information is reflect on your storage.

Azure Storage Accounts is a "box" to keep your Blobs, Tables, Queues, Files organised from the management point of view and for the access control. Each storage type is good for it's specific tasks.

If the world would have just one super storage which will solve all our possible cases for storing, querying and managing the data then there would not be such variety of different databases, storage types etc. available.

If you need to share the files as a "network folder" - try Azure Files . If your coders need a database storage, then the first question would be what are the requirements to the database do they have? What is the purpose of that database would be, etc. Azure, particularly, has a lot of different database solutions, and again, each of them good for some specific task, and can be not a good choice for other tasks.

As to Azure Tables, from the official docs :

Azure Table storage is a service that stores structured NoSQL data in the cloud, providing a key/attribute store with a schemaless design.

So, if your coders do need to store such data, then yes, that would be one of the possible choices.

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Correct me if I am wrong, when you code an app with a database, you can put the database on same/different server, and that can be on premise or on the cloud and you kind of link both together.

Correct. But also you can have your own server with the database which you need to manage yourself, or you can choose some cloud service which will provide the database for you but will keep the underlying server and other maintenance activity managed for you, so you no need to worry/spend your time on that.

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How is this is useful when using it for the app you're developing?

It is important to understand what your requirements are for data storage in order to pick a proper one. This question perhaps should be addressed not to you, but to your coders, who are building the app and can consolidate their requirements to the database store. Usually, they will tell you exactly what they need, and you may give them some ideas or advice of the alternatives, if any (That may be a similar solution with extra functionality or the way how the data is stored or processed, or have more built in integrations that may be important for you, or a decision whether keep own installation or use cloud managed service)

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For your further possible question about When should I use a NoSQL database instead of a relational database? Is it okay to use both on the same site? see this thread

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Update based on further questions:

If I develop an application with a database whose tables are on Azure, can I call let's say functions or data from it to my main application that is hosted on premise? What's the benefit of doing that versus hosting the tables on premise other than it's largely scalable and highly available?

Perhaps you need to better understand the relationship between App (Application) and DB (Database). The Database is a standalone system, which store the data, reply to the incoming queries (receive request, process it, return the result). In overall to the DB is not important who is requesting the data. It is a "passive" system. (There are some cases when DB can trigger further processes in data processing pipelines, but that is beyond this scope).

The App in opposite is an active system in App<->DB relationship. (Also leave behind more advanced designs where App is not just a 1 system). App receive requests, process them ( may do external requests to other "services" if that is necessary ), give a response (with or without data) to the requester. In App<->DB relationship the external requests is what happening. At some point App need some data from the DB, so App make a request to the DB, obtain the response and continue its own logic.

Where App server and DB server are placed is not that important (for simplicity). The important part is whether DB server is accessable for the requests. DB can be on-prem with public static IP address, it can be in cloud on your own server which has public static IP address (sometimes that is archived in different ways but we skip that for simplicity), that can be a Database as a Service cloud solution, where you do not need to have a server and configure the database, but have a url endpoint which you need to use to query the DB.

Answer 2

I appreciate the answer, and I pretty much agree with what you're saying.

But my questions goes beyond what the requirements are for the developers.

I'll modify the question. If I develop an application with a database whose tables are on Azure, can I call let's say functions or data from it to my main application that is hosted on premise? What's the benefit of doing that versus hosting the tables on premise other than it's largely scalable and highly available?

Answer 3

Azure Storage Tables are the "Notepad" of NoSQL Databases. If you want quick and easy key/value pairs, tables is the way to go. If you are looking for the "Word" of NoSQL in Azure then Cosmos DB is where it's at. Cosmos DB offers global distrobution, better features and better SLA (see comparison ). Tables are cheaper too.

Azure also supports MySQL, PostGreSQL, MariaDB and MSSQL as PaaS offerings if you wish to use a traditional database.