Short for binary large object: raw binary data, like pictures, audio, video or documents, that only an application can make sense of. Azure keeps these files as blobs in Blob Storage.
Also called binary large object.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains BLOB in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- LIKE
Compares strings with a pattern that can contain the % and _ wildcards. Because it only understands character patterns, searching big volumes of text this way is much slower than using full-text search.
- Blob storage
Azure's object store for unstructured content like images and video; a single block blob can reach roughly 190.7 TiB.
Related terms
- abfss://
Secure URI scheme used to reach ADLS Gen2 data, always through the dfs endpoint (account.dfs.core.windows.net); blob endpoint addresses are not used with it.
- Analyze image API
REST operation in Content Safety that rates a blob URL or base64-encoded picture against four harm categories, returning severity 0, 2, 4 or 6; it is called as
POST {endpoint}/contentsafety/image:analyze. - Append blob
Block-based blob tuned for writes that only add to the end, such as logs. Access tiers cannot be applied to it.
- Archive
Offline access tier for blobs, cheapest to store yet dearest to access. Reading a blob means rehydrating it first, which can take as long as 15 hours.
- Archive tier
An offline blob access tier offering the cheapest storage, meant for data that is hardly ever read. Archived blobs must first be rehydrated to the Hot, Cool or Cold tier, which may take as long as 15 hours, before you can read or change them, and ZRS, GZRS and RA-GZRS accounts can't use this tier.
- az storage blob
Set of Azure CLI commands for working with blob data;
upload-batchpushes a whole local folder, whilecopy start-batchcopies between containers on the server side. - Azure Backup always-on soft delete
Setting on Recovery Services and Backup vaults that, once enabled, is permanent. Deleted backup data stays recoverable for 14 to 180 days (14 by default, first 14 free); blob and Azure Files operational backups aren't covered.
- Azure Blob Storage events
Notifications in Real-Time hub, for instance
Microsoft.Storage.BlobCreatedorMicrosoft.Storage.BlobDeleted, that fire when a blob or directory changes in a general-purpose v2 or Blob Storage account. They describe changes rather than carrying business records, and can drive an eventstream or an Activator alert.