.NET Azure Blob Storage Integration

By Sandeep Mhaske | January 2025

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. What is Azure Blob Storage?
3. Setting Up Azure Blob Storage
4. Configuring .NET for Azure Blob Storage
5. Uploading Files to Blob Storage
6. Downloading Files from Blob Storage
7. Managing Blobs and Containers
8. Best Practices
9. Conclusion

Introduction

Azure Blob Storage is a scalable and secure storage solution offered by Microsoft Azure. It allows you to store large amounts of unstructured data such as images, videos, and documents. This blog provides a comprehensive guide on integrating Azure Blob Storage with .NET applications using the Azure SDK, complete with examples, tutorials, and best practices.

The following diagram illustrates guide on integrating Azure Blob Storage with .NET applicationse:

What is Azure Blob Storage?

Azure Blob Storage is a service that provides object storage for massive amounts of unstructured data. It supports three types of blobs: block blobs, append blobs, and page blobs. Common use cases include file storage, backups, and data streaming. Azure Blob Storage is highly secure and supports integration with various platforms, including .NET.

Setting Up Azure Blob Storage

Follow these steps to set up Azure Blob Storage:

1. Log in to the Azure Portal.
2. Create a new storage account and choose the appropriate region and redundancy settings.
3. In the storage account, create a Blob container for organizing your data.
4. Generate an access key or Shared Access Signature (SAS) for secure access.

Configuring .NET for Azure Blob Storage

To start using Azure Blob Storage in .NET, install the Azure.Storage.Blobs NuGet package:

Install-Package Azure.Storage.Blobs
            

Add the connection string to your appsettings.json file:

{
    "AzureBlobStorage": {
        "ConnectionString": "DefaultEndpointsProtocol=https;AccountName=your_account_name;AccountKey=your_account_key;EndpointSuffix=core.windows.net"
    }
}
            

Uploading Files to Blob Storage

The following example demonstrates how to upload files to Azure Blob Storage:

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;

public async Task UploadFileAsync(string connectionString, string containerName, string filePath)
{
    var blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient(connectionString);
    var containerClient = blobServiceClient.GetBlobContainerClient(containerName);
    var blobClient = containerClient.GetBlobClient(Path.GetFileName(filePath));

    using FileStream uploadFileStream = File.OpenRead(filePath);
    await blobClient.UploadAsync(uploadFileStream, true);
    Console.WriteLine("File uploaded successfully.");
}
            

Downloading Files from Blob Storage

Here is an example of downloading files from Blob Storage:

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;

public async Task DownloadFileAsync(string connectionString, string containerName, string blobName, string destinationPath)
{
    var blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient(connectionString);
    var containerClient = blobServiceClient.GetBlobContainerClient(containerName);
    var blobClient = containerClient.GetBlobClient(blobName);

    await blobClient.DownloadToAsync(destinationPath);
    Console.WriteLine("File downloaded successfully.");
}
            

Managing Blobs and Containers

Azure Blob Storage provides APIs for managing containers and blobs, including listing, deleting, and updating files.

using Azure.Storage.Blobs;

public async Task ListBlobsAsync(string connectionString, string containerName)
{
    var blobServiceClient = new BlobServiceClient(connectionString);
    var containerClient = blobServiceClient.GetBlobContainerClient(containerName);

    await foreach (var blobItem in containerClient.GetBlobsAsync())
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Blob name: {blobItem.Name}");
    }
}
            

Best Practices

• Use SAS tokens for secure and time-limited access.
• Enable logging and monitoring for better insights into storage usage.
• Use lifecycle management policies to automatically delete or archive data.
• Compress large files before uploading to save costs and improve performance.

Conclusion

Integrating Azure Blob Storage with .NET applications provides a scalable and secure way to manage unstructured data. With the Azure SDK and best practices outlined in this guide, developers can efficiently store and retrieve data, optimize performance, and reduce costs.