Azure Files Improvements Will Benefit VMs and VDI in Azure

• Security improvements will make Azure Files a more viable storage option for applications and user desktops hosted by Azure.
• A new Premium tier and updates to Standard will improve performance and capacity.
• Azure Files still falls short of “file share in the cloud” for on-premises clients.

Azure Files offers elastic file shares supporting Azure-hosted applications, utility use by Azure admins, and synchronization of file shares between on-premises locations via File Sync. Support for Azure Active Directory Domain Services (in preview) enables NTFS file permissions in Azure Files. VMs and virtual desktop infrastructure (VDI) hosted in Azure will benefit, particularly Microsoft’s planned Windows Virtual Desktop hosted desktop service. However, it will have limited benefit to on-premises clients.

File Shares in Azure

Azure Files works without requiring a VM file server or preallocated storage such as an Azure Disk. This capability enables customers to set up and expand file shares quickly. The service is often used to host Server Message Block (SMB) file shares required by an application that has been ported to Azure VMs, minimizing changes to the application. It can also be used by Azure admins to store and access tools or system images for management of VMs and other resources in Azure.