Azure Blob Storage on IoT Edge is now Generally Available

[Arpita Duppala]

This post was authored by @Arpita Duppala, PM on the High Availability and Storage team. Follow her @arnuwish on Twitter. 

The Azure IoT blob storage on IoT Edge module is now ready for production. If you are on the market for a storage solution at the Edge that works exactly like in the Cloud, across almost any hardware, and that uploads automatically, then this post is for you.

Azure Blob Storage on IoT Edge

Azure Blob Storage on IoT Edge is now Generally available providing:

• Light-weight Azure consistent local blob storage
• The ability to automatically upload the data to Azure from your local blob storage using configurable deviceToCloudUpload properties
• The ability to automatically delete the data from your local blob storage after a specified amount of time or when data is uploaded to Azure successfully using configurable deviceAutoDelete properties

Let's look at how things work and what can be achieved with Azure Blob Storage on IoT Edge. In the diagram below, we have an edge device running Azure IoT Edge runtime. It is running a custom module to process the data collected from the sensor and saving the data to the local blob storage account. Because it is Azure-consistent, the custom module can be developed using the Azure Storage SDK to make calls to the local blob storage, or simply use the pre-existing applications like Azure Storage Explorer. Then it will automatically upload the data from specified containers to Azure while making sure your IoT Edge device does not run out of space. 

This module is useful in scenarios:

• where there is lot of data to process. For example, data from industries capturing survey and behavioral data. It is efficient to do the processing of data locally to get low latency access to the data.
• when the devices are in a place with limited connectivity
• when you want to efficiently process the data locally to get low latency access to the data, such that you can respond to emergencies as quickly as possible.
• when you want to reduce bandwidth costs and avoid transferring terabytes of raw data to the cloud, you can process the data locally then only send processed data to cloud.

Azure Blob Storage on IoT Edge module allows you to store and access such data efficiently, process if required, and then configure and choose which data get automatically uploaded to Azure. It supports disconnected scenarios, so you are covered even if the device has limited connectivity. It automatically deletes the data after a specified amount of time or when upload is finished from IoT Edge device making space for new data.

Watch this quick video to learn more about this module and how to use it in different scenarios:-

Supported Computer Architectures:

1. Windows AMD64
2. Linux AMD64
3. Linux ARM32
4. Linux ARM64 (available in preview)

Available in Azure Marketplace:

https://azuremarketplace.microsoft.com/en-us/marketplace/apps/marketplace_iot.edge-azure-blob-storag...

Current Functionalities:

Using this module you can: 

• Store data locally and access the local blob storage account using the Azure Storage SDK.
• Store and access the data from your local block blob storage using Azure Storage Explorer
• Automatically upload blobs from IoT Edge device to Azure
• Automatically delete the data from IoT Edge device
• Deploy multiple instances in an IoT Edge device.
• Mount SMB share as your local storage when using Windows container of this module. 

Call to Action:

Try this module:

• Azure Blob Storage on IoT edge concepts: https://aka.ms/AzureBlobStorage-IotModule 
• How to deploy Azure Blob Storage on IoT Edge: https://aka.ms/Deploy-AzureBlobStorage-IotModule

Give us your feedback:

Your feedback is very important to us, tell us what you liked, how you are using it, and what to add next.

You can reach out to us at absiotfeedback@microsoft.com