DEV Community: Oluwasegun Michael Adesiyan

Understanding Cloud Computing Concepts: A Beginner's Guide

Oluwasegun Michael Adesiyan — Sun, 21 Jun 2026 20:00:57 +0000

Imagine you own a small shop. Instead of buying a huge building, expensive equipment, and hiring many workers from day one, you rent only what you need and increase or reduce your resources as your business grows. That is essentially how cloud computing works.

Cloud computing allows individuals and businesses to access computing resources such as servers, storage, databases, and software over the internet without owning the physical infrastructure.

To understand cloud computing better, let's explore some important concepts.

What is Virtualization?

Virtualization is the technology that makes cloud computing possible.

Think of a large apartment building. Instead of one family occupying the entire building, the building is divided into multiple apartments, allowing many families to live in the same structure independently.

Similarly, virtualization allows one powerful physical computer (server) to be divided into several virtual computers called Virtual Machines (VMs). Each virtual machine behaves like a separate computer with its own operating system and applications.

Why is Virtualization Important?
It makes better use of hardware resources.
It reduces costs because multiple users can share the same physical server.
It allows organizations to create and deploy new servers quickly.
It improves flexibility and efficiency.

Without virtualization, cloud providers would need a separate physical server for every customer, which would be extremely expensive and inefficient.

What is Scalability?

Scalability is the ability of a system to handle increasing workloads by adding more resources.

Imagine you own a restaurant.

When customer numbers increase, you can:

Buy larger cooking equipment (making your existing kitchen more powerful).
Open additional cooking stations and hire more staff.

Both approaches help you serve more customers.

In cloud computing, scalability means increasing computing resources to handle more users, more data, or more traffic.

Types of Scalability

-Vertical Scaling (Scale Up)

Adding more power to an existing server.

Example:

Increasing a server's memory from 8GB to 32GB.
Upgrading from 2 CPUs to 8 CPUs.

-Horizontal Scaling (Scale Out)

Adding more servers instead of upgrading one server.

Example:

Adding three additional servers to help handle website traffic.

Scalability ensures applications continue to perform well as demand grows.

What is Agility?

Agility refers to the speed and ease with which resources can be created, modified, or removed.

Imagine opening a new branch of your business.

Traditionally, you might spend weeks or months:

Purchasing equipment
Waiting for delivery
Installing systems

With cloud computing, you can launch new servers, databases, or applications within minutes.

Benefits of Agility
Faster innovation.
Quick testing of new ideas.
Reduced waiting time.
Faster response to customer needs.

Agility helps businesses adapt quickly to changing market conditions.

What is High Availability?

High Availability (HA) means keeping a system running and accessible even when some components fail.

Think about a hospital that has backup generators. If electricity from the power company fails, the generators immediately provide power so hospital operations continue.

Cloud systems use a similar approach.

If one server fails, another server takes over, allowing users to continue using the application with little or no interruption.

Why High Availability Matters
Minimizes downtime.
Improves customer experience.
Keeps business operations running.
Increases reliability.

Many cloud providers guarantee high availability through Service Level Agreements (SLAs), often promising uptime of 99.9% or higher.

What is Fault Tolaerance

Fault Tolerance goes one step further than High Availability.

A fault-tolerant system continues operating without interruption even when a component completely fails.

Imagine an airplane with multiple engines. If one engine stops working, the aircraft can continue flying safely because another engine immediately takes over.

In cloud computing, fault tolerance is achieved by creating duplicate resources that operate simultaneously.

Example

Suppose an online banking system runs on two active servers:

Server A
Server B

If Server A fails unexpectedly, Server B continues processing transactions instantly without users noticing any disruption.

Difference Between High Availability and Fault Tolerance

High Availability:

There may be a very brief interruption while another system takes over.

Fault Tolerance:

No interruption occurs because backup systems are already running and ready.

What is Global Reach?

Global Reach is the ability to deploy applications and services in different locations around the world.

Imagine a company based in Nigeria that has customers in the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia.

If all the company's servers are located only in Nigeria, overseas customers may experience slower response times.

Cloud providers solve this problem by operating data centers across multiple countries and regions.

Businesses can deploy their applications closer to users, improving speed and performance.

Benefits of Global Reach
Faster access for users worldwide.
Better customer experience.
Easier expansion into international markets.
Compliance with local data regulations.

This allows even small businesses to serve a global audience without building infrastructure in multiple countries.

Difference Between Elasticity and Scalability

Many people confuse elasticity and scalability because both involve adjusting resources. However, they are not the same thing.

Scalability

Scalability is the ability of a system to grow when demand increases.

Think of it as buying a larger water tank because your household uses more water over time.

The focus is on increasing capacity.

Elasticity

Elasticity is the ability of a system to automatically increase or decrease resources based on current demand.

Imagine a ride-hailing service.

During rush hour:

More drivers become available.

During quiet hours:

Fewer drivers are needed.

Resources expand and shrink automatically as demand changes.

Simple Comparison between Scalability & Elasticity

Scalability handles growth in workload while Elasticity Handles changing workload automatically.

Scalability is usually planned in advance while Elasticity happens automatically in real time.

Scalability focuses mainly on adding resources while Elasticity adds and removes resources as needed.

Scalability supports long-term growth while Elasticity supports short-term fluctuations.

Real-Life Example

An online store normally receives 1,000 visitors daily.

During a Black Friday sale:

Traffic increases to 50,000 visitors.

Scalability allows the store to add more servers to handle the increase.

Elasticity automatically adds extra servers during the sale and removes them afterward, ensuring the company only pays for what it uses.

Conclusion

Cloud computing has transformed how businesses use technology by providing resources on demand without requiring large upfront investments.

Key concepts to remember are:

Virtualization allows multiple virtual computers to run on one physical server.
Scalability enables systems to handle growth by adding resources.
Agility allows rapid deployment and management of resources.
High Availability keeps services running with minimal downtime.
Fault Tolerance ensures services continue operating even when failures occur.
Global Reach enables businesses to serve customers worldwide.
Elasticity automatically adjusts resources based on demand, while Scalability focuses on increasing capacity.

Provide private storage for internal company documents

Oluwasegun Michael Adesiyan — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:44:02 +0000

Create a storage account and configure high availability.

Create a storage account for the internal private company documents.

In the portal, search for and select Storage accounts.
Select + Create.
Select the Resource group created in the previous lab.
Set the Storage account name to private. Add an identifier to the name to ensure the name is unique.
Select Review, and then Create the storage account.

Wait for the storage account to deploy, and then select Go to resource.

This storage requires high availability if there’s a regional outage. Read access in the secondary region is not required. Configure the appropriate level of redundancy.

Explanation

A storage account is like a digital locker in the cloud. Resource group is a folder that organizes related services.
High availability means your files stay safe even if one region (data center area) has problems

Configure Redundancy

In the storage account, in the Data management section, select the Redundancy blade.
Ensure Geo-redundant storage (GRS) is selected.
**Refresh **the page.
Review the primary and secondary location information.
Save your changes.

Explanation:

Redundancy means keeping copies of your files in multiple places.
GRS ensures your files are copied to another region for safety.

Create a storage container, upload a file, and restrict access to the file.

Create a private storage container for the corporate data.

In the storage account, in the Data storage section, select the Containers blade.
Select + Container.
Ensure the Name of the container is private.

Ensure the Public access level is Private (no anonymous access).
As you have time, review the Advanced settings, but take the defaults. It means: don’t change anything in the Advanced settings unless the lab specifically tells you to.

Azure already chooses safe, recommended defaults for you.

Select Create.

Explanation:

A container is like a folder inside your storage account. Setting Public access level to Private means nobody can see files unless you give them permission.

Upload a File and Test Privacy For testing, upload a file to the private container. The type of file doesn’t matter. A small image or text file is a good choice. Test to ensure the file isn’t publically accessible.

Select the container.
Select Upload.
Browse to files and select a file.
Upload the file.
Select the uploaded file.
On the Overview tab, copy the URL.
Paste the URL into a new browser tab.
https://privatemikkystorage.blob.core.windows.net/private/cli issue.PNG
Verify the file doesn’t display and you receive an error.

Explanation:

This test shows that your file is truly private — only authorized users can access it.

Configure Shared Access Signature (SAS) An external partner requires read and write access to the file for at least the next 24 hours. Configure and test a shared access signature (SAS).

Select your uploaded blob file and move to the Generate SAS tab.

In the Permissions drop-down, ensure the partner has only Read permissions.
Verify the Start and expiry date/time is for the next 24 hours.
Incorrect

Correct to 24 hrs

Select Generate SAS token and URL.
Copy the Blob SAS URL to a new browser tab.

Verify you can access the file. If you have uploaded an image file it will display in the browser. Other file types will be downloaded.

Explanation:

SAS is a temporary key that lets someone access a file for a limited time.
Blob is just Azure’s word for a file stored in the cloud.

Configure storage access tiers and content replication.

To save on costs, after 30 days, move blobs from the hot tier to the cool tier.

Return to the storage account.
In the Overview section, notice the Default access tier is set to Hot
In the Data management section, select the Lifecycle management blade.
Select Add rule.
Set the Rule name to movetocool.
Set the Rule scope to Apply rule to all blobs in the storage account.
Select Next.
Ensure Last modified is selected.
Set More than (days ago) to 30.
In the Then drop-down select Move to cool storage.
As you have time, review other lifecycle options in the drop-down.
Add the rule.

Explanation:

Hot tier = files used often (fast but more expensive).
Cool tier = files used less often (cheaper).
This rule saves money by moving older files to cheaper storage.

Back Up Public Website Storage The public website files need to be backed up to another storage account.

In your storage account, create a new container called backup. Use the default values. Refer back to Lab 02a if you need detailed instructions.

Container created
Navigate to your publicwebsite storage account. This storage account was created in the previous exercise.
- In the Data management section, select the Object replication blade.
- Select Create replication rules.
- Set the Destination storage account to the private storage account.
- Set the Source container to public and the Destination container to backup.
- Create the replication rule. replication successful
Optionally, as you have time, upload a file to the public container.

Return to the private **storage account and refresh the **backup container.

Within a few minutes your public website file will appear in the backup folder.

Explanation:

Object replication automatically copies files from your public site into your private backup, keeping everything safe.

Upload to the Public Container
Go into your storage account (the one you created in Lab 02a for the public website).
Open the container named public.
Click Upload and choose a file (for example, a picture or text file).
Once uploaded, that file is now available for public access through its URL.
Refresh the Backup Container
Switch back to your private storage account (the one holding your secure containers).
Open the container named backup.
Click Refresh.

Within a few minutes, you should see the file you uploaded to the public container appear automatically in the backup container. This happens because the lab setup includes a data protection feature that copies public website files into backup storage for safety.

Resource Group Reminder
All of these containers (public, private, backup) live inside the same resource group you created at the very beginning.
That resource group is the folder holding your storage account and all containers.

Public container → serves files to the website.
Backup container → automatically keeps a copy for recovery.
Resource group → keeps everything organized in one place, so you can delete or manage them together later.

Upload file → public container.
Azure automatically backs it up → backup container.
Both containers live inside your resource group (e.g., RG-StorageLab)

Conclusion
By following these exact steps, we’ve:
Created a secure storage account.
Configured redundancy for high availability.
Built a private container.
Tested file privacy.
Shared files safely with SAS.
Set lifecycle rules to save money.
Backed up your public website storage.
This ensures your company’s documents are private, secure, and always available.

Provide shared file storage for the company offices

Oluwasegun Michael Adesiyan — Thu, 04 Jun 2026 12:34:39 +0000

Here we move from blob storage(bucket of files) to Azure Files (shared folders/office storage for company offices) which act like a shared network drive that employees in different offices can access, but it lives in the cloud.

Employees can connect to it using familiar tools (Windows Explorer, macOS Finder, or Linux mounts) via the SMB protocol (the same one used for shared folders in offices).

Create and configure a storage account for Azure Files.

Create a storage account for the finance department’s shared files.

In the portal, search for and select Storage accounts.
Select + Create.
For Resource group select Create new. Give your resource group a name, RG-FinanceFiles , and select OK to save your changes.

New Resource group created
Provide a Storage account name. Ensure the name meets the naming requirements.financefiles123123
Set the Performance to Premium.
Set the Premium account type to File shares.
Set the Redundancy to Zone-redundant storage.(This ensures copies are spread across zones in the same region for resilience)
Select Review and then Create the storage account. (Premium + ZRS ensures fast, reliable access for employees across offices.)

Wait for the resource to deploy.
Select Go to resource.

Create and configure a file share with directory.

Create a file share for the corporate office.

In the storage account, in the Data storage section, select the File shares blade.
Select + File share and provide a Name. ,corporate-share

Review the other options, but take the defaults.
Select Create
(_This is the shared folder employees will connect to.
_)

Add a directory to the file share for the finance department. For future testing, upload a file.

Select your file share (corporate-share). and select + Add directory.
Name the new directory finance.
Select Browse and then select the **finance **directory.
Notice you can Add directory to further organize your file share.
Upload a file of your choosing.
(Directories help organize files by department (Finance, HR, etc.).

Configure and test snapshots.

Snapshots = point-in-time copies of the file share.
Protects against accidental deletion.
Lets you restore files later.

Similar to blob storage, you need to protect against accidental deletion of files. You decide to use snapshots.

Select your file share.
In the Operations section, select the Snapshots blade.
Select + Add snapshot. The comment is optional.
Select OK.
Select your snapshot and verify your file directory and uploaded file are included.
Snapshots = safety net for shared files.

Practice using snapshots to restore a file.

Return to your file share.
Browse to your file directory.
Locate your uploaded file and in the Properties **pane select **Delete. Select Yes to confirm the deletion.

Select the Snapshots blade and then select your snapshot.
Navigate to the file you want to restore,
Select the file and the select Restore.
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Provide a Restored file name.
Verify your file directory has the restored file.

Configure restricting storage access to selected virtual networks.

For security, you can limit access so only employees inside the company’s network can connect.

This tasks in this section require a virtual network with subnet. In a production environment these resources would already be created.

Search for and select Virtual networks.
- Select Create. Select your resource group. and give the virtual network a name., _ VNet-Finance)_
- Take the defaults for other parameters, select Review + create, and then Create.

Wait for the resource to deploy.
Select Go to resource.
- In the Settings section, select the **Subnets **blade.
Select the **default **subnet.
In the Service endpoints section choose Microsoft.Storage in the Services drop-down.
Do not make any other changes.
Be sure to Save your changes.

The storage account should only be accessed from the virtual network you just created.

Return to your files storage account
In the Security + networking section, select the Networking blade.
- Change the Public network access to Enabled from selected virtual networks and IP addresses.

In the Virtual networks section, select Add existing virtual network.
Select your virtual network and subnet, select Add.
Be sure to Save your changes.
- Select the Storage browser and navigate to your file share.
- Verify the message not authorized to perform this operation. You are not connecting from the virtual network.

This ensures only employees inside the corporate network can access the file share.

Azure Files = cloud-based shared folders accessible via SMB/NFS.
Premium File Shares = fast performance for office workloads.
Snapshots = protect against accidental deletion.
Virtual Network restrictions = secure access only for employees

How to Create a Highly Available Storage Account for a Public Website

Oluwasegun Michael Adesiyan — Wed, 06 May 2026 22:47:02 +0000

Imagine you want to put pictures, documents, or even a small website online so anyone can see it. Microsoft Azure (a cloud service) lets you store files safely and make them available to the public.

Create a storage account with high availability

1.Create a storage account to support the public website
What is a storage account?

Think of it like a digital locker in the cloud where you keep your files. It’s managed by Microsoft Azure and can be accessed from anywhere.

In the portal, search for and select Storage accounts
Select + Create

-For resource group select new. Give your resource group a name and select OK

Select New

New resource group created

Set the Storage account name to publicwebsite. Make sure the storage account name is unique by adding an identifier.

Storage account name publicwebsitemikky created

Take the defaults for other settings.
Select Review and then Create.
Wait for the storage account to deploy, and then select Go to resource

storage account to deploy being validated

Click Create

Deployment in progress

Deployment Complete. Go to Resource

2.This storage requires high availability if there’s a regional outage.
What does high availability mean?

It means your files stay online even if one region (data center) has problems. Azure copies your files to another location.
High availability = your files stay online even if one region has problems.

Azure copies your files to another location.
Additionally, enable read access to the secondary region

In the storage account, in the Data management section, select the Redundancy blade
Ensure Read-access Geo-redundant storage is selected.
This means your files are backed up in another region.
Review the primary and secondary location information.

3.Information on the public website should be accessible without requiring customers to login (Allow Public Access)
You want people to see your website without logging in.
Public access = anyone can view your files without logging in.

In the storage account, in the Settings section, select the Configuration blade.
Ensure the Allow blob anonymous access setting is Enabled
Blob = file stored in Azure.
Anonymous access = no password needed.

By default, it is disabled

Now enabled

Be sure to Save your changes.

Update

Create a blob storage container with anonymous read access

Container = a folder inside your storage account

1.The public website has various images and documents. Create a blob storage container for the content.

In your storage account, in the Data storage section, select the Containers blade.
Select + Container
Ensure the Name of the container is public
Select Create.

Storage container successfully created

2.Customers should be able to view the images without being authenticated. Configure anonymous read access for the public container blobs.

Select your public container.
On the Overview **blade, select **Change access level.
Ensure the Public access level is Blob (anonymous read access for blobs only).
Select OK.

Access level successfully changed

Practice uploading files and testing access.

1.For testing, upload a file to the public container. The type of file doesn’t matter. A small image or text file is a good choice

Ensure you are viewing your container.
Select Upload.
Browse to files and select a file. Browse to a file of your choice.
Select Upload.
Close the upload window, Refresh the page and ensure your file was uploaded.

Upload confirmed

2.Determine the URL for your uploaded file. Open a browser and test the URL

Select your uploaded file.
On the Overview tab, copy the URL.
Paste the URL into a new browser tab.
If you have uploaded an image file it will display in the browser. Other file types should be downloaded.

Configure soft delete

1.It’s important that the website documents can be restored if they’re deleted. Configure blob soft delete for 21 days. Learn more about soft delete for blobs.
Soft delete = recycle bin for your files

Go to the Overview blade of the storage account.
On the Properties page, locate the Blob service section
Select the Blob soft delete setting.
Ensure the Enable soft delete for blobs is checked.

Enable soft delete for blob- Checked

Change the Keep deleted blobs for (in days) setting to 21. By default, this is 7 days

Changed to 21 days

Notice you can also Enable soft delete for containers.
Don’t forget to Save your changes.

Saved

Confirmed from the Overview page

2.If something gets deleted, you need to practice using soft delete to restore the files

Navigate to your container where you uploaded a file.
Select the file you uploaded and then select Delete.

Select file uploaded

Select Delete

Select OK to confirm deleting the file.
On the container Overview page, toggle the slider Show deleted blobs. This toggle is to the right of the search box.

Select your deleted file, and use the ellipses on the far right, to **Undelete **the file.
Refresh the container and confirm the file has been restored.

Configure blob versioning

1.It’s important to keep track of the different website product document versions. Learn more about blob versioning.
What is versioning?

It keeps old versions of files when you upload new ones. Useful if you update documents often.
Versioning = keeps old versions of files when you upload new ones.

Go to the Overview blade of the storage account.
In the Properties section, locate the Blob service section.
Select the Versioning setting.
Ensure the Enable versioning for blobs checkbox is checked.
Notice your options to keep all versions or delete versions after.
Don’t forget to Save your changes.

Conclusion

We’ve just:

Created a storage account for your website.

Made it highly available (safe from outages).

Allowed public access without login.

Added safety features like soft delete and versioning.

This setup is perfect for hosting images, documents, or even static websites on Azure — and now you understand every step.

Provide storage for the IT department testing and training

Oluwasegun Michael Adesiyan — Tue, 05 May 2026 06:03:13 +0000

What is Azure Storage? A Simple Guide for Everyone

Have You Ever Run Out of Space on Your Phone?
You know that frustrating moment when your phone says "Storage Full" and you can't take a new photo or download a new app? Now imagine that problem — but for a big company that handles millions of files, customer records, videos, and data every single day.
That's exactly the kind of problem Azure Storage was built to solve.

So, What Is Azure Storage?
Azure Storage is Microsoft's online storage service. Think of it like a giant, super-secure hard drive in the sky — except instead of sitting on your desk, it lives in Microsoft's powerful computers (called servers) spread across the world.
You store your files there. You access them from anywhere. And you never have to worry about running out of space.
In simple terms: Azure Storage = A safe place on the internet to keep your data — whether that's photos, videos, documents, or computer program files.

Create a resource group and a storage account.

Create and deploy a resource group to hold all your project resources. Learn more about resource groups. What is a resource group? Think of it as a folder in Azure where you keep related services together. For example, if you’re building a website, you might have a storage account, a database, and a web app — all grouped in one resource group.

In the Azure portal, search for and select Resource groups
Select + Create
Give your resource group a name. For example, storagerg.
Select a region. Use this region throughout the project
(this is the physical location of Microsoft’s datacenter where your resources will live).
Example: West Europe, East US, etc.
Stick to one region for consistency.
Select Review and create to validate the resource group.
Select Create to deploy the resource group

2.Create and deploy a storage account to support testing and training.
What is a storage account?

It’s like a digital locker in the cloud where you store files, images, or documents. Azure Blob Storage lives inside this account.
Learn more about the types of storage accounts.

In the Azure portal, search for and select Storage accounts.
Select + Create.
On the Basics tab, select your Resource group.
Provide a Storage account name. The storage account name must be unique in Azure
Set the Performance to Standard
Select Review, and then Create.

Configure simple settings in the storage account.

1.The data in this storage account doesn’t require high availability or durability. A lowest cost storage solution is desired.
Redundancy (Data Copies)
Redundancy = how many copies of your data Azure keeps
Learn more about storage account redundancy.

In your storage account, in the Data management section, select the Redundancy blade
Select Locally-redundant storage (LRS) in the Redundancy drop-down.
Choose LRS (Locally Redundant Storage) → keeps 3 copies in one datacenter (lowest cost).
Be sure to Save your changes.

-Refresh the page and notice the content only exists in the primary location.

2.The storage account should only accept requests from secure connections. Learn more about requiring secure transfer from secure connections

In the Settings section, select the Configuration blade.
Ensure Secure transfer required is Enabled.

3.Developers would like the storage account to use at least TLS version 1.2.
Learn more about transport layer security (TLS).
TLS = Transport Layer Security, a protocol that keeps data safe during transfer.
Set Minimum TLS version to 1.2 (modern and secure).

In the Settings section, select the Configuration blade.
Ensure the Minimal TLS version is set to Version 1.2.

4.Until the storage is needed again, disable requests to the storage account.
Shared keys = a way to access storage.
Developers may prefer other secure methods.
Learn more about disabling shared keys.

In the Settings section, select the Configuration blade.

-Ensure Allow storage account key access is Disabled.
Here the key access is enabled
Public network access = allow anyone to reach your storage account from the internet

Disable key access

Be sure to Save your changes.

5.Ensure the storage account allows public access from all networks.
Public network access = allow anyone to reach your storage account from the internet.

In the Security + networking section, select the Networking blade
Ensure Public network access is set to Enabled from all networks.
Be sure to Save your changes.

Public network finally enabled from all networks
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Conclusion

We have now:

Created a resource group .

Created a storage account.

Configured it for low cost (LRS), secure connections (TLS 1.2), and public access.

This setup is perfect for testing and training scenarios where cost matters more than high availability.