Using Azure AD for authorization

When interacting with Azure Storage, you may use three different options when it comes to authenticating and authorizing each request:

• Access key
• Shared access token
• Azure AD token

While the former two are the native ways of connecting with Azure Storage and are the simplest options, Azure AD authentication and authorization is a feature that gives you the most flexibility and improved security. Let’s discuss it further to have a better understanding of its capabilities.

Azure AD authorization benefits

Both access keys and shared access tokens are simple mechanisms for securing access to Azure Storage. The access flow for them looks like this, starting with the access key:

1. Obtain the access key from your Azure Storage account.
2. Share the key with a client.

Now, each client we share a key with can use it to connect to our storage account. What’s more, it gives them full access to all services...