Azure Storage - Which tool should I choose to manage my Azure Storage?

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One of the first thing you need when you start doing Azure projects is a tool to manage the Azure storage. But so many are available… And they all look good!  In this post, I will try to answer to the question: Which tool should I choose to manage my Azure Storage?  Feel free to add comments or suggestions, I’m always open to better idea.


Azure Storage Explorer
clip_image002The first one I try was the Azure Storage Explorer. You can easily find it (you probably already know it) on Codeplex.com.
The look of this application is gorgeous and the tool it self is very powerful.  You can manage the queues, the tables, the blob storage.  And more recently to project was update to add blob security features. And this tool is completely free.
The only weak point I found, was that the application was freezing when I try too upload many (+1000) images in a blog storage.

Cloudberry Explorer

clip_image010Another I try was Cloudberry. It look like a ftp tool and only manage the blob storage, but I found it to be the more efficient.  The tool ask you for a registration, but the registration is free.  It never freeze event when I shoot him thousand of images.
The only con is that it doesn't support queues and tables.


AzureXplorer

clip_image012Finally I also try AzureXplorer. This tool cost only 50$ (a free fully functional 30-days evaluation is also available) and is completely integrated to Visual Studio (that a great thing when you are a .Net developer).  It can manage queues, tables and blob storages.
The problem was when (yes again) upload a lot of images the full Visual Studio was lock.  So I was unable to work… but other wise very nice.

And the winner is…

And the winner is all of them. I think that if your doing a lot of upload in the blob storage the CloudBerry is must.  Otherwise, depending if you are using Visual Studio or if you want to go with a free open source project both AzureXplorer or Azure Storage Explorer are a excellent choice.

Again, this is not the absolute truth, this is base on my experience.  So please, if you know a good tool to manage Azure Storage add a comment.

~ Franky

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