Microsoft unveils its Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2

Microsoft has unveiled its Azure Data Leak Storage Gen2 to further bring down the barriers to big data analytics. This will make it easier for Azure’s enterprise customers to get insights from the cloud-based storage and data analytics platform.

The competitors to this solution use client-side file system emulation to interface with the cloud object stores. But Microsoft’s solution is an all server-side and natively integrated. This will provide a smoother experience by consuming lesser storage and cost lesser data management overhead.

Tad Brockway, GM of Azure storage and Azure Stack said that Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 is "the first no-compromise data lake for the industry". He further added to it by saying that the solution has an added "true HDFS [Hadoop Distributed File System] compatibility" this will tightly integrate the technology with Azure Blob storage for enterprise-grade levels of scalability and performance.

Brockway further explained that using a simple API call Azure Data Lake storage Gen 2 will grant Azure object storage customers to access the richer compatibility of a Hadoop-compatible file system without moving data. Although in beta stage, Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 will inherit data protection, security, storage tiers and lifecycle management capabilities found in Azure Blob Storage.