Explore what’s new in Microsoft Azure Files

What is Azure Files?

Azure Files provides fully managed file shares in the cloud that you can access from anywhere using standard protocols such as Server Message Block (SMB) or Network File System (NFS).

This can be used for:

• Replacing or supplementing on-premises file servers
•  "Lift and shift" applications
•  Simplify cloud development
• Containerization

Azure Files Benefits

- Ease of Use

When an Azure file share is mounted on your computer, you don't need to do anything special to access the data, just navigate to the path where the file share is mounted and open/modify a file.

- Shared access

Azure file shares support the industry standard SMB and NFS protocols, meaning you can seamlessly replace your on-premises file shares with Azure file shares without worrying about application compatibility. Being able to share a file system across multiple machines, applications, and application instances is a significant advantage for applications that need shareability.

- Fully managed

Azure file shares can be created without the need to manage hardware or an OS. This means you don't have to deal with patching the server OS with critical security upgrades or replacing faulty hard disks.

- Scripting and tooling

PowerShell cmdlets and Azure CLI can be used to create, mount, and manage Azure file shares as part of the administration of Azure applications. You can create and manage Azure file shares using Azure portal and Azure Storage Explorer.

- Resiliency

Azure Files has been built from the ground up to be always available. Replacing on-premises file shares with Azure Files means you no longer must wake up to deal with local power outages or network issues.

- Familiar programmability

Applications running in Azure can access data in the share via file system I/O APIs. Developers can therefore leverage their existing code and skills to migrate existing applications. In addition to System IO APIs, you can use Azure Storage Client Libraries or the Azure Files REST API.

What is New?

- NFS Azure file shares are now the default option for SAP Enterprise Cloud Services (ECS) deployments

- New SLA of 99.99 percent uptime for Azure Files Premium Tier is generally available

- Snapshot support for NFS file shares

- Boosting per-client performance with NFS nconnect is generally available

- Up to 1100 MiB/s single client write throughput

- Up to 1700 MiB/s single client read throughput

With these new features, Azure Files NFS is poised to power even more of the world’s largest and most complex workloads, delivering superior functionality, performance, and reliability to customers across a range of industries and use cases. We believe that the new 99.99 percent SLA, snapshot capabilities, and higher performance with nconnect will unlock many more use cases and applications.

Have your customers take advantage of these new capabilities by contacting your Surestep Ambassador to help you with this journey.