### Create a storage account to support the public website.
- In the portal, search for and select
- Select + Create.
- For resource group select new. Give your resource group a name and select OK.
- Set the Storage account name to publicwebsite. Make sure the storage account name is unique by adding an identifier.
- Take the defaults for other settings.
- Select Review and then Create.
- Wait for the storage account to deploy, and then select Go to resource.
This storage requires high availability if there’s a regional outage. 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.
- Review the primary and secondary location information.
Information on the public website should be accessible without requiring customers to login
- In the storage account, in the Settings section, select the Configuration blade.
- Ensure the Allow blob anonymous access setting is Enabled.
- Be sure to Save your changes.
Create a blob storage container with anonymous read access
- The public website has various images and documents. Create a blob storage container for the content.
- Select + Container.
- Ensure the Name of the container is public.
- Select Create.
Customers should be able to view the images without being authenticated. Configure anonymous read access for the public container blobs.
- On the Overview blade, select Change access level.
- Ensure the Public access level is Blob (anonymous read access for blobs only).
- Select OK.
uploading files and testing access.
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.
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
It’s important that the website documents can be restored if they’re deleted. Configure blob soft delete for 21 days.
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.
- Change the Keep deleted blobs for (in days) setting to 21.
- Notice you can also Enable soft delete for containers.
- Don’t forget to Save your changes.
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
- 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
It’s important to keep track of the different website product document versions.
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.
- Don’t forget to Save your changes.
This project demonstrates the practical implementation of building a resilient and publicly accessible storage solution using Microsoft Azure. By successfully creating a highly available storage account, enabling anonymous public access, and configuring blob storage for hosting website content, the exercise highlights essential cloud engineering best practices for scalability, accessibility, and reliability.
Implementing features such as soft delete and blob versioning further strengthens data protection and operational continuity by ensuring that accidental deletions or unintended file changes can be quickly recovered. These configurations are critical in real-world production environments where maintaining data integrity and service availability directly impacts user experience and business continuity.
Overall, this project reinforces the importance of designing cloud storage solutions with both availability and recoverability in mind. It also provides a solid foundation for deploying static website content securely and efficiently, while leveraging Azure’s built-in redundancy and data management capabilities. Sharing this step-by-step implementation on DEV Community contributes to knowledge sharing within the tech ecosystem and showcases practical cloud engineering expertise beyond theoretical concepts.
Top comments (1)
Nice