Azure File Shares: New Resource Types

Key insights

• File Share resource as a top-level Azure resource: Azure now treats individual file shares as standalone resources instead of nesting them under storage accounts.
  This lets teams manage shares directly and view them like virtual machines or disks.
• Simplified management: You can create and configure file shares without creating storage accounts first.
  That reduces setup steps and lowers management complexity.
• Granular security control and networking: Each share can have its own network and security settings for precise access control.
  That improves isolation and compliance for project- or department-level data.
• Billing per share and faster provisioning: Costs are tracked at the file-share level using provisioned v2 pricing, and provisioning is reported to be about twice as fast as before.
  That makes cost allocation clearer and reduces wait time for deployment.
• Scalability and reduced throttling: The preview supports up to 1,000 file shares per subscription per region and raises request limits to cut throttling.
  That helps large environments scale more predictably.
• Preview status and roadmap: The feature is in preview now, initially supporting NFS on SSD with SMB and wider regional availability planned.
  You can try it via the Azure portal by creating a new file share resource.

Introduction

In a recent YouTube video, John Savill's [MVP] explains a notable change to Azure Files that will matter to cloud architects and storage administrators. He summarizes a shift to a new file share resource type that promotes file shares to top-level Azure resources instead of keeping them nested inside storage accounts. Consequently, this change alters how teams create, secure, and bill for file shares in Azure. Moreover, the video frames the update as a step toward simplifying cloud-native file share management.

Savill walks viewers through the practical implications while noting the feature is in preview and initially limited in scope. Therefore, IT teams should view the update as an early look rather than a finished platform change. At the same time, the video highlights clear operational advantages that deserve evaluation during testing. Furthermore, he provides pointers on how to access the preview via the Azure portal so practitioners can try it themselves.

What Changed and Why It Matters

Traditionally, Azure Files kept file shares under a storage account, which tied capacity, networking, security, and billing together at the account level. Now, file shares become independent resources, allowing teams to manage individual shares directly with their own networking and security settings. As a result, administrators gain finer-grained control and can assign costs and policies to specific shares rather than to entire storage accounts. Additionally, Savill points out that provisioning speeds improved, with early tests showing roughly twice the speed compared to the previous model.

This redesign addresses long-standing difficulties around capacity planning and interference between share-level needs, especially in organizations with many projects or departments. Therefore, the change can reduce complexity when different teams share the same subscription but need discrete controls. However, the video emphasizes that shifting to per-share resources also changes how teams think about governance, tagging, and resource limits. Consequently, architects will need to update operational runbooks and automation scripts to align with the new model.

Benefits and Practical Improvements

Savill highlights several concrete benefits, beginning with simplified management because users can create and manage file shares directly without provisioning separate storage accounts first. Moreover, the model offers transparent billing since charges appear per share, which helps organizations allocate costs more precisely to projects or business units. He also notes improved scalability, mentioning that preview quotas support up to 1,000 file shares per subscription per region and that request limits are higher to reduce throttling. Consequently, teams with heavy file-share usage may see fewer performance-related interruptions.

Another key advantage is the ability to set network and security policies at the share level, enabling tighter access control for individual workloads. For example, a sensitive departmental share can enforce different rules than a general-purpose share without complex storage account segmentation. Furthermore, the preview initially includes support for NFS on SSDs, with SMB support and broader regional availability planned, so users should evaluate which protocols meet their needs. Therefore, organizations with mixed protocol requirements must plan for staged adoption.

Tradeoffs and Operational Challenges

Despite the appeal, Savill warns that the new model introduces tradeoffs. For instance, per-share billing and resources improve clarity but may increase management overhead if teams create many small shares without governance. Therefore, organizations must balance the benefits of granularity against the risk of resource sprawl and harder-to-manage quotas. In addition, automated tooling and monitoring built around the storage-account model will require updates to recognize shares as first-class resources.

Moreover, the preview stage brings limitations and uncertainty: some features remain platform-limited, SMB support is not yet fully available, and regional rollout will take time. Consequently, production deployments should proceed cautiously and include migration and rollback plans. Finally, migration from the older model introduces complexity because teams must decide whether to migrate existing shares, reconfigure access controls, and test performance under the new quota and billing constructs.

How to Try It and Final Takeaways

John Savill points out that practitioners can access the preview through the Azure portal by searching for file shares and using the create experience to try the new flow. He recommends testing performance, provisioning speed, security policies, and billing visibility in a controlled environment before wider rollout. Furthermore, teams should update automation scripts, monitoring rules, and governance policies to reflect first-class file share resources.

In summary, the new file share resource type marks a meaningful modernization of Azure Files that simplifies management, sharpens security controls, and clarifies billing. However, organizations must weigh these gains against migration effort, governance challenges, and preview limitations. Ultimately, Savill’s overview helps IT leaders understand the tradeoffs and prepare pragmatic adoption plans while the feature matures.

Keywords

Azure File Shares, File Shares resource types, Azure Files new resource types, Azure Storage file shares, Manage Azure file shares, SMB NFS Azure file shares, Migrate file shares to Azure, Azure file share snapshots