Object Storage Lifecycle with Azure Blob Storage
Master Azure Blob Storage access tiers, lifecycle management policies, and metadata operations — the storage fundamentals every AZ-204 candidate needs to know.
# Object Storage Lifecycle with Azure Blob Storage
*This article is Part 2, Chapter 2.3 of the **AZ-204 Exam Refresher** series. We complete the data storage domain with Azure Blob Storage — covering access tiers, automated lifecycle management, and SDK-based metadata operations.*
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## Introduction
Azure Blob Storage is the backbone of data storage in Azure. Profile pictures, video files, log archives, database backups, ML training datasets — they all end up in Blob Storage at some point. It's cheap, durable (99.9999999999% — eleven nines), and massively scalable.
For the exam, the focus is on making smart decisions about *which tier* your data should live in and *how to automate moving it* as it ages. Nobody manually manages storage tiers at scale.
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## Core Concepts
### Storage Account Types
| Type | Use Case | Supported Services |
|---|---|---|
| **General Purpose v2 (GPv2)** | Most workloads — default choice | Blob, File, Queue, Table |
| **Blob Storage** | Blob-only, legacy | Blob only |
| **Premium Block Blob** | Low-latency, high-throughput | Block blobs only |
| **Premium Page Blob** | Disk storage (VHDs) | Page blobs only |
| **Premium File Shares** | High-performance SMB shares | Azure Files only |
### Blob Types
| Type | Best For |
|---|---|
| **Block Blob** | Files, images, videos, documents — most use cases |
| **Append Blob** | Log files — efficient for append operations |
| **Page Blob** | Random read/write (Azure VM disks, VHDs) |
### Access Ti