Azure File storage is a service that offers file shares in the cloud using the standard Server Message Block (SMB) Protocol. Both SMB 2.1 and SMB 3.0 are supported. With Azure File storage, you can migrate legacy applications that rely on file shares to Azure quickly and without costly rewrites. Applications running in Azure virtual machines or cloud services or from on-premises clients can mount a file share in the cloud, just as a desktop application mounts a typical SMB share. Any number of application components can then mount and access the File storage share simultaneously.
Since a File storage share is a standard SMB file share, 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. IT Pros can use PowerShell cmdlets to create, mount, and manage File storage shares as part of the administration of Azure applications.
You can create Azure file shares using Azure Portal, the Azure Storage PowerShell cmdlets, the Azure Storage client libraries, or the Azure Storage REST API. Additionally, because these file shares are SMB shares, you can access them via standard and familiar file system APIs.