SharePoint and Azure Blob Storage... Which Do I Use???

You have made the decision to move to the cloud! Yay!!!! You want to take advantage of the flexibility, security, and savings of what cloud offerings can give. Great job! Now... What do I choose? SharePoint or Azure Blob Storage? Like a good Consultant, I'll tell you... It depends. Damnit, Meyer!!! you say, I KNOW it depends. Calm down, I say, Let's walk through it!

First... What are they? Azure Blob Storage is where you store artifacts in the cloud. I say "artifacts" and not "documents" because Azure Blob Storage lets you store just about ANYTHING there. Want to plop and EXE there? No Problem. Want to drop an old database file? Go for it? Want do put all of your CAD files? Done! In this way, Blob Storage is very flexible. In fact, it is optimize for storing massive amounts of UNSTRUCTURED data.

Meyer, you say, you are deviating from the Feynman method... You need to explain thing simply! Hold your horses, I say, I'm getting to that...

Structured vs Unstructured Data

What is unstructured vs structured data? Well, unstructured data doesn't adhere to any particular style, model, or definition... Azure doesn't care if that artifact is a regular file, or something else. It also doesn't store anything special about the file. It's just there.

Because, those files are just there, and Azure doesn't care what they are, you typically need to create an interface for those files. You can't just upload stuff in to Azure and then have a place to go get them. You need to have some other program to allow your applications or YOU to get at them. If you are thinking to use Azure Blob Storage as your cloud based file resource, then you will want to configure Azure File Share so that you can use Windows Explorer as your interface. BUT, your interface will force you to use some sort of structure that the interface understands. File explorer is very flexible, but it can't read all things. Your interface, whatever it may be, does impose some bit of structure on your unstructured data.

Now... SharePoint. SharePoint is Microsoft's premier Document management and collaboration tool. It provides a feature rich environment to promote collaboration between authenticated parties, and provides a STRUCTURED data storage solution.

Meyer... You say, you are throwing technical jargon around again, Dr. Feynman would be very upset!!! Ah, I say, but I have more explanation to put me back in Richard's, we are on a first name basis, good graces.

Structured data adheres to a data model or definition. It also has the ability to add MORE than just the file and its contents to describe that file. This is called Metadata. You can think of metadata like an excel spreadsheet. Your file is in the A column, and your metadata are the things about that file that you put in the other columns. An Invoice, for example, besides the actual file, you want to know the vendor, the amount, the tax, the vendor's address, your customer number, your cost center, etc. They are the bits of information that allow you to search and retrieve that file quickly.

With this structure, SharePoint has an interface that supports all of the functionality that makes life easy, drag and drop, version control, and workflow management. Because you are keeping information about that document, you can now ACTION upon that metadata, and work for approvals, publishing, and virtually anything else you can think of.

Pros and Cons

Ok, Meyer, I get it... If I'm using Azure File Shares, what benefit do I get over my normal on prem file shares?

Well... You no longer have to worry about the server that those files are shared on, or the storage limitations that come with the on premises world. You also can configure authentication so that I no longer need a VPN to connect a PC to map that folder. You also have the ability to ensure that the files are stored in multiple datacenters around the nation or around the world to ensure that you data is never lost.

Ok... What do I get with SharePoint? All that "metadata" sounds like a lot of work to enter in.

Well... Because SharePoint is designed for collaboration, it comes with a huge feature set to allow you to collaborate with both internal and external people. Tools like Microsoft Syntex and Microsoft's other Content AI systems can automatically pull information from documents in to your metadata so that you don't have to have a person entering in that information. What's more, the SharePoint/Microsoft 365 system adds functionality for records management so that the information and documents can be controlled by policy to be removed or acted upon when legally required.

Great! But... What about search?

Azure Blob storage gives a bit of relief in the search department with an AI service called Azure Cognitive Search, but... Again, you need an interface to take advantage of the work that Azure Cognitive Search will bring. This is not native in the Windows Explorer interface, and you would need a separate program to use it.

SharePoint, on the other hand, has had a rich search feature set for many years. The metadata that Syntex has tagged your documents with can be leveraged with the powerful search system to very quickly return information back to you. This is built in and out of the box functionality. What's more the PnP Modern Search Web Parts allow you to even further use search to create atheistically pleasing search web pages, with out the use of any code. What's more, the PnP Modern Search Web Parts can use Microsoft Search as well as SharePoint search to take advantage of the AI natural language query chat functionality just released in the new Bing search.

Conclusion

All in all, you really need to have a compelling reason to go to SharePoint storage. There is time and effort that needs to be put in to that system to enable you to use the functionality properly. Azure Blob Storage is easy to do "Lift-and-Shift" style migrations, but, for the most part, won't give your users any new functionality. So, we come back to my "it depends" answer. Many times you will create a hybrid style configuration that will allow you to have the information and files within your SharePoint environment that make the most sense, while having those files within your Blob Storage Environment that do not lend themselves well to a SharePoint deployment.