Azure DB and Storage Service - Chee sheet

1.  What is the difference between Azure Table Storage and the Azure SQL service?

The major difference is that Azure SQL uses a relational storage structure and Azure Table follows centralized structured data without relations. Other differences are –

2.  Difference between Azure Blob Storage vs Azure File Storage 

• Azure Blob Storage lets you store large amounts of unstructured data in Microsoft Azure.  
• Azure File Storage is for sharing files and managing structured data you can access from anywhere using SBM protocols. 

Unstructured data is data that doesn't adhere to a specific data model or definition, such as text or binary data, it is also possible to store structured data formats such as Excel or CSV files. However, Blob Storage treats these files as binary or text blobs and does not impose any schema or structure on the data inside the files.

When structured data is stored in Azure Blob Storage, it is stored as a file. For example, if you upload an Excel file to Blob Storage, it will be stored as a file with the .xlsx extension. Similarly, if you upload a CSV file, it will be stored as a file with the .csv extension.

• Unstructured Data: Data that does not follow a specific format or organization. Azure Blob Storage is optimized for storing such data because it does not enforce any schema or predefined structure. Examples: PDFs, images, videos, audio files, and log files.
• Structured Data: Data that is systematically organized into tables with rows and columns, often seen in databases or spreadsheets. Examples: Excel files, CSV files.

Blob Storage can hold structured data files, but it doesn’t treat the data inside those files as structured.

Cosmos DB

• Cosmos DB is horizontally scaling NoSQL database. 
• Partitioning makes it fast.
• Replication makes it available.
• Flexible Schema makes it simple to work with.

Selecting partition key :

Selecting your partition key is a simple but important design choice in Azure Cosmos DB. Once you select your partition key, it isn't possible to change it in-place. If you need to change your partition key, you should move your data to a new container with your new desired partition key.

References :

1 Cosmos DB Series - Azure