The storage account

Typically, you would set up your storage account as shown in Figure 4.1:

Figure 4.1: Setting up the storage account

You should create containers to organize the contents of your storage account. There are two types of blob storage that you could use, these being page and block blobs (technically, there is another blob type, called append blob, which will not be covered in this chapter). The type of blob you use is dictated by the security route that you take. If you decide to use a storage key within the SQL Server credential, then page blobs will be used; if you configure an SAS for the credential, then block blobs will be used. The best practice is to use block blobs for three main reasons. Firstly, using an SAS is a more secure way than using a storage key to authorize access to blob storage. It provides a more granular level of access without the need to expose the main storage account keys (primary or secondary). With block blobs...