Blob storage and Sitecore media items

Sitecore uses blob technology for storing Sitecore Media Library assets. The blobs are stored in the SQL Database by default. As an alternative, Microsoft Azure Blob Storage offers a less expensive approach to storing media files, as well as performance enhancements. Using Microsoft Azure Blob Storage also helps to maintain smaller Sitecore databases.

As a Sitecore content author, you can manage your media files (images, videos, audios, PDFs, and text documents), in your Sitecore media library. Whenever you upload a media file to the media library, Sitecore stores the media file as a blob and creates an associated media item in Content storage. The media item stores the metadata of the media file, for example: size, height, width, and blob ID.

Refer to the following diagram for an overview of the process:

You can see the unique blob ID assigned to a media item in the Media field: