We use it for ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes. We get files from different tools related to our micro-processing, copy them into Azure File Storage, and then consume them for parsing and loading.
Chief Manager at a insurance company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
Top 5
2024-04-24T08:31:36Z
Apr 24, 2024
We are transforming our Oracle databases to the data lake because the data volume is increasing daily. We are moving from classic Azure to modernize our architecture in that scenario.
I work for a company that is a partner with Microsoft. Therefore, the use cases depend on the client. I've used it for various solutions, including those for banks and financial institutions.
Learn what your peers think about Microsoft Azure File Storage. Get advice and tips from experienced pros sharing their opinions. Updated: October 2024.
Program Manager at a tech services company with 201-500 employees
MSP
Top 5
2023-07-13T03:19:37Z
Jul 13, 2023
The primary use case for us is storing attachments and images in our projects. It allows us to access the application and retrieve the files whenever needed, without the need for additional servers. We use the endpoint to access the application and view the images in any reports.
IT Consultant at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
Consultant
Top 10
2023-07-06T15:59:00Z
Jul 6, 2023
I generally help customers use Microsoft Azure File Storage primarily for a lot of purposes, including the storage of files and enhancing storage security. There are private endpoints and a VNX resolver, which is basically a private endpoint resolver that resolves the IP address of the private endpoints internally. It is then further mapped within the application. It also has short file storage which accesses the storage according to the minimum privilege and rights assigned to that storage. It has networking facilities and firewall options to safeguard public data. It also has a SaaS token that can be generated around the storage and shared storage which enables customers to share their files through Azure File Storage.
Our use case depends on data structure types and needs of the customer. If I know that a customer has different types of structure, like semi-structured, unstructured, and structured data, then I have to use Azure Data Lake storage. If it's structured, I can directly use Azure SQL or Azure Synapse Analytics to process my data.
Microsoft Azure File Storage has multiple functionalities, and you can use it as a source, but you may face some problems when contributing something in Azure. This is hard to do. The configuration in Azure doesn't help. This is okay, and it's not a big problem since I am not too aware of Azure resources. That's why I might have faced problems at first.
I was using Microsoft Azure File Storage because we were receiving the batch file. In a previous project, our team opted to utilize Microsoft Azure File Storage as our initial choice due to the need to gather batch files from various systems, including SAP and other external sources. We stored all the data in the file storage, and then employed either Azure Data Pipeline or Azure Data Factory to retrieve the files from storage, process them, extract the data, and ultimately transfer it to Azure Data Store. We relied on file storage as a means to store the batch files.
CTO at a construction company with 51-200 employees
Real User
Top 20
2023-03-09T22:01:30Z
Mar 9, 2023
We primarily use the solution in the IoT environment to gather information from devices in file form using FTP protocol and SDP to move the files from the clients to the cloud. Naturally, we kept those files in the file system that we moved for various internal reasons into a database. Due to physical and preconceived infrastructure reasons, we moved the installation into the data of up to a week. This is to block storage for analytics and data warehousing.
I used Microsoft Azure File Storage for a project focused on deploying a Windows server and connecting that server to my Active Directory domain. I synchronized the file server with Microsoft Azure File Storage. I then set up and connected the disc storage with storage in the cloud to back up the data. My intent for using the solution was to back up data in the cloud. My company doesn't use Microsoft Azure File Storage, but other organizations, government, and non-government could be using it. The usage of the solution depends on whether an organization can integrate Microsoft Azure File Storage into its environment.
We have a lot of snapshots that use cold storage and translation-related queries that are used for block storage. We also have a lot of share point related documents. We require a lot of file storage as our customer is purely energy-based. This solution is helpful as they have a lot of energy-based reports, energy-based analyses and medium documents contracts.
Our primary use case for the solution is storing files and calling in our code. Additionally, we use it to push logs from different sources, and whenever we have some transactions or logs related to them, we push them to a storage block and archive it for HR purposes.
As an enterprise solution architect, I have most often used Microsoft Azure File Storage as a file storage solution in projects that have required the migration of organizational data from on-premises to the public cloud. In these cases, the migration is usually a one-time transfer of data to Azure File Storage, where the data then resides going forward. Essentially, with any content management platforms that we implement for ourselves or our customers, Azure File Storage will almost certainly play a part in the final solution. For example, we are now building a new knowledge management hub as an internal platform for solution architects, and it is based on Azure. That said, at my company we tend to take a pretty agnostic view when it comes to products and vendors, and with some of the ITSM or content management solutions that we recommend such as those offered by ServiceNow and AIOps, we will deploy on both AWS and Azure as these are our preferred partners. During the course of my work, I have also dealt with other Azure products such as Azure Data Factory, but data warehousing is only one part of what I do, as my role is more aligned to business development and solution architecture. We have a platform focused on data solutions, comprising AI data warehousing, recording, analytics, etc., and this kind of platform would be more likely to be using Azure Data Factory for all of the data lakes across the various public and private cloud providers. Right now, my role is a bit broader and more generalist, and I would usually have someone well-versed in the Azure cloud actually building the solutions. I am more interested in the economics of Azure solutions, and I have found a lot of customers are asking, "Can you bring in some expertise on cloud economics?" So this is definitely an area of interest and a core focus for me.
We use Azure File storage to both store and analyze our data. We also provide our customers with data storage and analysis facilities using this solution.
Manager - IT at a computer software company with 201-500 employees
Real User
2022-01-20T10:28:54Z
Jan 20, 2022
We have a hybrid Microsoft Azure File Storage deployment. One of the models is running onto the cloud where all the images and KYC data is uploaded onto the cloud platform, and that is stored onto the file storage. We have developed our own payment solutions on a mobile platform, where we have two modules for our solutions. In the first model, we host it as an entire SaaS solution where clients will bring their merchants and will use our solutions. The second model is where we sell this solution to the clients, offshore, and the client will host it on their premises or onto the cloud. My clients are Indian banks and overseas banks Another model of the solution we sell is for offshore clients, the client will host it on their infrastructure or onto the cloud. My clients are Indian banks and overseas banks. Many banks are connected and are using our solutions over the cloud. For example, if a customer with the corporation wants to onboard their own merchant to use these solutions, they have to onboard the merchants and confirm the KYC. We have developed a digital platform where sales and the other staff can go to the merchants, and upload their KYC data, such as identity verification and address verification. All this data will go out through the mobile phones by clicking the pictures. All of the images will be uploaded via the API calls at the backend application, which is Microsoft Azure File Storage, and all those images get stored, encrypted onto the file storage.
Infrastructure Team at a manufacturing company with 10,001+ employees
Real User
2021-10-28T19:34:00Z
Oct 28, 2021
Azure files offers several architectural scenarios so you can check and implement different use cases depending on your needs. In brief you can use the Azure Files with a serverless approach or to integrate it with your on premise file servers through Azure File Sync. We have IT colleagues spread all over the world, so we are trying to define governance rules. We need to manage things at the infrastructure level, and so the Azure File could be a technology to replace or to integrate with our file servers on-premise solution.
Manager Cloud Platform at AGILE CLOUD SOLUTIONS LLC
Real User
2021-07-27T18:59:20Z
Jul 27, 2021
The product is primarily used for the file server. You can have the complete infrastructure including the repository and access control as well. People can use offline data if they like. As an example, there is a company we work with that has different offices across the world - in Europe, the UK, UAE, and India - and they want around 100,000 customers as well as employees to access their file system. That file system was built on-prem, however, they have multiple challenges in terms of having delays in accessing the files. For security reasons, they are not able to manage the identity on Active Directory for all the locations. They want a complete advanced and modern authentication to be used, like multifactor cloud app security, and advanced start production, et cetera. That is not possible on-prem. Therefore, they have decided to go for Azure file sharing - a cloud-based file system. They use the three locations in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. These three locations have a file-sharing system enabled that replicates their on-prem storage and people can access all the data over the cloud storage, which easily replicates across the locations. Whatever file(s) people are accessing frequently will be shown via an AI-based pattern so that admins can see which file(s) are being used the most. The system will make it easier to access those most-used files while keeping users and the system safe within the system.
Senior Director of IT Operations at a tech services company with 11-50 employees
Real User
2020-02-26T05:55:56Z
Feb 26, 2020
My company is a managed services firm. We do have a firewall internally, but we have about 70 banks and probably about 30 to 40 clients in other verticals that we are servicing. So it is not just us or our clients that we use products for. I am constantly looking at a lot of different client bases as far as different industries and needs, and a lot of different solutions and possibilities. A lot of what we use Azure File Storage for at our company is BLOB storage because the format is flexible in terms of pulling stuff down. Usually what we are doing is storing and retrieving IT management information. We have to be able to store and pull specific files from storage. BLOB storage is a good solution for that type of management. Most of our clients are using a private cloud because it is a requirement for them. As financial institutions, that is kind of where they have to go to properly secure critical data. We go public because there is no requirement on our end to do private cloud. For our financial institution clients, there are requirements from oversight boards and governing institutions that they need to have critical information stored privately because they are handling people's money.
Fully managed file shares that use the standard SMB 3.0 protocol
Key scenarios:
Share data across on-premises and cloud servers
Migrate file share-based applications to the cloud with no code changes
Integrate modern applications with File storage
Simplify hosting for high availability workload data
We use it for ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes. We get files from different tools related to our micro-processing, copy them into Azure File Storage, and then consume them for parsing and loading.
We are transforming our Oracle databases to the data lake because the data volume is increasing daily. We are moving from classic Azure to modernize our architecture in that scenario.
We use the solution for migrating local file servers and for file storage of on-premise systems.
I work for a company that is a partner with Microsoft. Therefore, the use cases depend on the client. I've used it for various solutions, including those for banks and financial institutions.
We use the solution to store server data.
The solution is user-friendly and integrates easily with web apps.
The primary use case for us is storing attachments and images in our projects. It allows us to access the application and retrieve the files whenever needed, without the need for additional servers. We use the endpoint to access the application and view the images in any reports.
I generally help customers use Microsoft Azure File Storage primarily for a lot of purposes, including the storage of files and enhancing storage security. There are private endpoints and a VNX resolver, which is basically a private endpoint resolver that resolves the IP address of the private endpoints internally. It is then further mapped within the application. It also has short file storage which accesses the storage according to the minimum privilege and rights assigned to that storage. It has networking facilities and firewall options to safeguard public data. It also has a SaaS token that can be generated around the storage and shared storage which enables customers to share their files through Azure File Storage.
Our use case depends on data structure types and needs of the customer. If I know that a customer has different types of structure, like semi-structured, unstructured, and structured data, then I have to use Azure Data Lake storage. If it's structured, I can directly use Azure SQL or Azure Synapse Analytics to process my data.
Microsoft Azure File Storage has multiple functionalities, and you can use it as a source, but you may face some problems when contributing something in Azure. This is hard to do. The configuration in Azure doesn't help. This is okay, and it's not a big problem since I am not too aware of Azure resources. That's why I might have faced problems at first.
I was using Microsoft Azure File Storage because we were receiving the batch file. In a previous project, our team opted to utilize Microsoft Azure File Storage as our initial choice due to the need to gather batch files from various systems, including SAP and other external sources. We stored all the data in the file storage, and then employed either Azure Data Pipeline or Azure Data Factory to retrieve the files from storage, process them, extract the data, and ultimately transfer it to Azure Data Store. We relied on file storage as a means to store the batch files.
We use the solution for our clients to access their files from different locations.
This solution is mainly used for banking processes.
We primarily use the solution in the IoT environment to gather information from devices in file form using FTP protocol and SDP to move the files from the clients to the cloud. Naturally, we kept those files in the file system that we moved for various internal reasons into a database. Due to physical and preconceived infrastructure reasons, we moved the installation into the data of up to a week. This is to block storage for analytics and data warehousing.
I used Microsoft Azure File Storage for a project focused on deploying a Windows server and connecting that server to my Active Directory domain. I synchronized the file server with Microsoft Azure File Storage. I then set up and connected the disc storage with storage in the cloud to back up the data. My intent for using the solution was to back up data in the cloud. My company doesn't use Microsoft Azure File Storage, but other organizations, government, and non-government could be using it. The usage of the solution depends on whether an organization can integrate Microsoft Azure File Storage into its environment.
We have a lot of snapshots that use cold storage and translation-related queries that are used for block storage. We also have a lot of share point related documents. We require a lot of file storage as our customer is purely energy-based. This solution is helpful as they have a lot of energy-based reports, energy-based analyses and medium documents contracts.
Our primary use case for the solution is storing files and calling in our code. Additionally, we use it to push logs from different sources, and whenever we have some transactions or logs related to them, we push them to a storage block and archive it for HR purposes.
As an enterprise solution architect, I have most often used Microsoft Azure File Storage as a file storage solution in projects that have required the migration of organizational data from on-premises to the public cloud. In these cases, the migration is usually a one-time transfer of data to Azure File Storage, where the data then resides going forward. Essentially, with any content management platforms that we implement for ourselves or our customers, Azure File Storage will almost certainly play a part in the final solution. For example, we are now building a new knowledge management hub as an internal platform for solution architects, and it is based on Azure. That said, at my company we tend to take a pretty agnostic view when it comes to products and vendors, and with some of the ITSM or content management solutions that we recommend such as those offered by ServiceNow and AIOps, we will deploy on both AWS and Azure as these are our preferred partners. During the course of my work, I have also dealt with other Azure products such as Azure Data Factory, but data warehousing is only one part of what I do, as my role is more aligned to business development and solution architecture. We have a platform focused on data solutions, comprising AI data warehousing, recording, analytics, etc., and this kind of platform would be more likely to be using Azure Data Factory for all of the data lakes across the various public and private cloud providers. Right now, my role is a bit broader and more generalist, and I would usually have someone well-versed in the Azure cloud actually building the solutions. I am more interested in the economics of Azure solutions, and I have found a lot of customers are asking, "Can you bring in some expertise on cloud economics?" So this is definitely an area of interest and a core focus for me.
We use Azure File storage to both store and analyze our data. We also provide our customers with data storage and analysis facilities using this solution.
I primarily use the solution for my backup files. It's for copies. I use it as a backup that connects with the cloud and one account of Microsoft.
We have a hybrid Microsoft Azure File Storage deployment. One of the models is running onto the cloud where all the images and KYC data is uploaded onto the cloud platform, and that is stored onto the file storage. We have developed our own payment solutions on a mobile platform, where we have two modules for our solutions. In the first model, we host it as an entire SaaS solution where clients will bring their merchants and will use our solutions. The second model is where we sell this solution to the clients, offshore, and the client will host it on their premises or onto the cloud. My clients are Indian banks and overseas banks Another model of the solution we sell is for offshore clients, the client will host it on their infrastructure or onto the cloud. My clients are Indian banks and overseas banks. Many banks are connected and are using our solutions over the cloud. For example, if a customer with the corporation wants to onboard their own merchant to use these solutions, they have to onboard the merchants and confirm the KYC. We have developed a digital platform where sales and the other staff can go to the merchants, and upload their KYC data, such as identity verification and address verification. All this data will go out through the mobile phones by clicking the pictures. All of the images will be uploaded via the API calls at the backend application, which is Microsoft Azure File Storage, and all those images get stored, encrypted onto the file storage.
Azure files offers several architectural scenarios so you can check and implement different use cases depending on your needs. In brief you can use the Azure Files with a serverless approach or to integrate it with your on premise file servers through Azure File Sync. We have IT colleagues spread all over the world, so we are trying to define governance rules. We need to manage things at the infrastructure level, and so the Azure File could be a technology to replace or to integrate with our file servers on-premise solution.
The product is primarily used for the file server. You can have the complete infrastructure including the repository and access control as well. People can use offline data if they like. As an example, there is a company we work with that has different offices across the world - in Europe, the UK, UAE, and India - and they want around 100,000 customers as well as employees to access their file system. That file system was built on-prem, however, they have multiple challenges in terms of having delays in accessing the files. For security reasons, they are not able to manage the identity on Active Directory for all the locations. They want a complete advanced and modern authentication to be used, like multifactor cloud app security, and advanced start production, et cetera. That is not possible on-prem. Therefore, they have decided to go for Azure file sharing - a cloud-based file system. They use the three locations in the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. These three locations have a file-sharing system enabled that replicates their on-prem storage and people can access all the data over the cloud storage, which easily replicates across the locations. Whatever file(s) people are accessing frequently will be shown via an AI-based pattern so that admins can see which file(s) are being used the most. The system will make it easier to access those most-used files while keeping users and the system safe within the system.
We are using the VP storage version. Our primary use case is for roaming profiles flowing on the frictional desktop.
We are partners with Microsoft and I'm an executive of the company.
My company is a managed services firm. We do have a firewall internally, but we have about 70 banks and probably about 30 to 40 clients in other verticals that we are servicing. So it is not just us or our clients that we use products for. I am constantly looking at a lot of different client bases as far as different industries and needs, and a lot of different solutions and possibilities. A lot of what we use Azure File Storage for at our company is BLOB storage because the format is flexible in terms of pulling stuff down. Usually what we are doing is storing and retrieving IT management information. We have to be able to store and pull specific files from storage. BLOB storage is a good solution for that type of management. Most of our clients are using a private cloud because it is a requirement for them. As financial institutions, that is kind of where they have to go to properly secure critical data. We go public because there is no requirement on our end to do private cloud. For our financial institution clients, there are requirements from oversight boards and governing institutions that they need to have critical information stored privately because they are handling people's money.
Our primary use case of this solution to migrate several products to the cloud. We use several Microsoft products simultaneously.