Azure Files Improves Performance, Syncing, and Pricing Flexibility

• Azure Files has gained meaningful speed improvements, particularly when accessing small files.
• File Sync improvements make it easier and faster to synchronize Azure Files with Windows Server on-premises file servers.
• A new pricing model is more flexible, while maintaining some degree of predictability.

File servers are widely used by third-party off-the-shelf applications as well as by developers building custom in-house applications. Azure Files (Microsoft’s cloud-hosted and fully managed file server) now offers improved performance and synchronization with on-premises systems, and a new purchasing option provides predictability along with more flexibility. The improvements mean organizations that had previously rejected Azure Files for performance reasons may want to reconsider; the new licensing model should be regarded as the new default by procurement teams.

Why Azure Files Matters

File servers, which provide the ability to access files and directories using the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, are one of the most commonly used features of Windows Server and other on-premises server OSs. Most commercial off-the-shelf (COTS) software assumes that files are accessed via SMB, and developers building new applications often prefer to access files using APIs that also support SMB.