> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.datazone.co/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Azure Blob Storage

> Azure Blob Storage is Microsoft's object storage solution for the cloud, designed to store massive amounts of unstructured data.

# Overview

Azure Blob Storage is a massively scalable object storage solution for unstructured data. Datazone provides native integration with Azure Blob Storage to read data files directly from your containers.

## Connection Parameters

| Parameter      | Required | Description                                       |
| -------------- | -------- | ------------------------------------------------- |
| Name           | Yes      | A unique identifier for your Azure Blob source    |
| Account URL    | Yes      | The URL endpoint for your Azure Storage account   |
| Token          | Yes      | The access token or SAS token for authentication  |
| Container Name | Yes      | The name of the container holding your data files |

## Required Permissions

The Azure Storage account needs the following permissions:

* `Storage Blob Data Reader` - For reading blob data
* `Storage Blob Data List` - For listing blobs in containers
* `Storage Account List` - For accessing storage account properties

## Limitations

Be aware of the following limitations when working with Azure Blob sources:

* CSV, TXT, Parquet, JSON files are supported
* UTF-8 encoding is recommended
* Individual file size limits apply based on your Azure Storage configuration
* The Storage account and Datazone instance should ideally be in the same region for optimal performance
* Cross-region access may incur additional Azure charges

## Next Steps

After configuring your Azure Blob source:

1. Create extracts to specify which files to ingest
2. Configure scheduling for recurring extracts
3. Integrate the source into your data pipelines

For more information about working with extracts and pipelines, refer to their respective documentation sections.