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Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer enables you to easily work with Azure Storage data safely and securely on Windows, macOS, and Linux. By following these guidelines, you can ensure your data stays protected.
General
Storage Explorer 1.10.0 enables users to upload, download, and copy managed disks, as well as create snapshots. Because of these additional capabilities, you can use Storage Explorer to migrate data from on-premises to Azure, and migrate data across Azure regions.
Start managing Azure storage resources with Storage Explorer. Download and install Azure Storage Explorer, connect to a storage account or service, and more. From Home Office (through VPN) and using the client (MASE) 'Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer' When the Public Ip of the users is whitelisted the client MASE (Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer) can access the ADLS Storage Account. When using Private Endpoints (tried 'dfs' and 'blob') I got the following error.
Microsoft Azure Storage Explorer enables you to easily work with Azure Storage data safely and securely on Windows, macOS, and Linux. By following these. The client (Storage Explorer) itself is NOT case sensitive, and it will refuse to add a second connection with the same name regardless the casing of the connection name. The add connection wizard will refuse with a red message 'The Microsoft Azure storage account has already been attached'.
- Always use the latest version of Storage Explorer. Storage Explorer releases may contain security updates. Staying up to date helps ensure general security.
- Only connect to resources you trust. Data that you download from untrusted sources could be malicious, and uploading data to an untrusted source may result in lost or stolen data.
- Use HTTPS whenever possible. Storage Explorer uses HTTPS by default. Some scenarios allow you to use HTTP, but HTTP should be used only as a last resort.
- Ensure only the needed permissions are given to the people who need them. Avoid being overly permissive when granting anyone access to your resources.
- Use caution when executing critical operations. Certain operations, such as delete and overwrite, are irreversible and may cause data loss. Make sure you're working with the correct resources before executing these operations.
Choosing the right authentication method
Storage Explorer provides various ways to access your Azure Storage resources. Whatever method you choose, here are our recommendations.
Azure AD authentication
The easiest and most secure way to access your Azure Storage resources is to sign in with your Azure account. Signing in uses Azure AD authentication, which allows you to:
- Give access to specific users and groups.
- Revoke access to specific users and groups at any time.
- Enforce access conditions, such as requiring multi-factor authentication.
We recommend using Azure AD authentication whenever possible.
This section describes the two Azure AD-based technologies that can be used to secure your storage resources.
Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC)
Azure role-based access control (Azure RBAC) give you fine-grained access control over your Azure resources. Azure roles and permissions can be managed from the Azure portal.
Storage Explorer supports Azure RBAC access to Storage Accounts, Blobs, and Queues. If you need access to File Shares or Tables, you'll need to assign Azure roles that grant permission to list storage account keys.
Access control lists (ACLs)
Access control lists (ACLs) let you control file and folder level access in ADLS Gen2 blob containers. You can manage your ACLs using Storage Explorer.
Shared access signatures (SAS)
If you can't use Azure AD authentication, we recommend using shared access signatures. With shared access signatures, you can:
- Provide anonymous limited access to secure resources.
- Revoke a SAS immediately if generated from a shared access policy (SAP).
Azure File Explorer Download
However, with shared access signatures, you can't:
- Restrict who can use a SAS. A valid SAS can be used by anyone who has it.
- Revoke a SAS if not generated from a shared access policy (SAP).
When using SAS in Storage Explorer, we recommend the following guidelines:
- Limit the distribution of SAS tokens and URIs. Only distribute SAS tokens and URIs to trusted individuals. Limiting SAS distribution reduces the chance a SAS could be misused.
- Only use SAS tokens and URIs from entities you trust.
- Use shared access policies (SAP) when generating SAS tokens and URIs if possible. A SAS based on a shared access policy is more secure than a bare SAS, because the SAS can be revoked by deleting the SAP.
- Generate tokens with minimal resource access and permissions. Minimal permissions limit the potential damage that could be done if a SAS is misused.
- Generate tokens that are only valid for as long as necessary. A short lifespan is especially important for bare SAS, because there's no way to revoke them once generated.
Microsoft Storage Explorer Logo
Important
When sharing SAS tokens and URIs for troubleshooting purposes, such as in service requests or bug reports, always redact at least the signature portion of the SAS.
Storage account keys
Storage account keys grant unrestricted access to the services and resources within a storage account. For this reason, we recommend limiting the use of keys to access resources in Storage Explorer. Use Azure RBAC features or SAS to provide access instead.
Some Azure roles grant permission to retrieve storage account keys. Individuals with these roles can effectively circumvent permissions granted or denied by Azure RBAC. We recommend not granting this permission unless it's necessary.
Storage Explorer will attempt to use storage account keys, if available, to authenticate requests. You can disable this feature in Settings (Services > Storage Accounts > Disable Usage of Keys). Some features don't support Azure RBAC, such as working with Classic storage accounts. Such features still require keys and are not affected by this setting.
If you must use keys to access your storage resources, we recommend the following guidelines:
- Don't share your account keys with anyone.
- Treat your storage account keys like passwords. If you must make your keys accessible, use secure storage solutions such as Azure Key Vault.
Note
If you believe a storage account key has been shared or distributed by mistake, you can generate new keys for your storage account from the Azure portal.
Public access to blob containers
Storage Explorer allows you to modify the access level of your Azure Blob Storage containers. Non-private blob containers allow anyone anonymous read access to data in those containers.
When enabling public access for a blob container, we recommend the following guidelines:
- Don't enable public access to a blob container that may contain any potentially sensitive data. Make sure your blob container is free of all private data.
- Don't upload any potentially sensitive data to a blob container with Blob or Container access.
Next steps
In this page, we have summarized the key differences in supported features in Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer. Hopefully this would give you enough reasons to use Cerulean for managing your Azure resources. Even though there are features supported in both applications, Cerulean provide some additional features that makes your life as a developer easier when it comes to managing Azure resources.
| Feature | Cerulean | Storage Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Cross Platform (runs on Windows, Mac & Linux) | ||
| Supported Azure Services | ||
| – Azure Storage | ||
| – Azure Cosmos DB | ||
| – Azure Subscription | ||
| – Azure Service Bus | ||
| – Azure Cognitive Search | ||
| – Azure Redis Cache | ||
| – Azure Cloud Services (Classic) | ||
| – Azure Disks | ||
| Other Features | ||
| Pricing | Starts from $39/month | Free |
Azure Storage
| Feature | Cerulean | Storage Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Connect to Azure Storage accounts | ||
| Manage blob resources (blob containers, blobs, upload, download and more) | ||
| Manage file resources (file shares, files, upload, download and more) | ||
| Manage queue resources (queues, messages and more) | ||
| Manage table resources (tables, entities and more) | ||
| Explore data from 'secondary' endpoints (RA-GRS accounts) | ||
| Storage analytics | ||
| Cloud Service Diagnostics |
Why you should consider Cerulean?
1. Connect to Azure Storage Accounts
Using Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer, you can connect to your Azure Storage accounts using your Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) credentials, Account Name/Key combination or Shared Access Signature (SAS) URL. However Cerulean add some features that make the overall experience better.
With Resource Categorization, you can put your storage accounts in different resource categories (e.g. Dev, Test, Prod) for better manageability. With Resource Permissions, you can open a storage account in 'read-only' or 'read-write' mode to prevent accidental deletes and updates. You can assign friendly names to your storage accounts for easier identification. These things are not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer.
2. Better Blob Resources Management
Windows Storage Explorer
Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to manage your blob resources (blob containers and blobs), however Cerulean adds some extra features there to make you as a developer more productive.
Better Upload/Download: While uploading files and folders from your local computer, you can specify a list of file extensions & a compression algorithm (GZIP or DEFLATE) and Cerulean will first compresses those files and upload them. Similarly while downloading, you can instruct Cerulean to automatically decompress the blobs where content-encoding property of the blob is either 'gzip' or 'deflate'. This is not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer.
Better Search: Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer allows you to search for blobs by blob prefix. Cerulean goes beyond that and lets you perform a contains search where you can search for blobs by specifying a string contained in the blob name. This comes in quite handy if you want to files of a particular type in a blob container.
Bulk Operations: Cerulean enables you to perform bulk operations on blobs. You can set properties, take snapshots, or change access tier (hot/cold/archive) on multiple blobs, blob folders or all blobs in a blob container with ease. With Microsoft Storage Explorer, you will need to perform these operations on each blob separately which can be a really tiresome process if you have to do this on many blobs in a blob container.
Multiple Views: You can view blobs in folder hierarchy (virtual folders and blobs) or flat (no) hierarchy (the way blobs are actually stored in storage). Microsoft Storage Explorer only lets you view blobs in folder hierarchy.
3. Better File Resources Management
Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to manage your file resources (file shares, folders and files), however Cerulean adds some extra features there to make you as a developer more productive.
Better Upload/Download: While uploading files and folders from your local computer, you can specify a list of file extensions & a compression algorithm (GZIP or DEFLATE) and Cerulean will first compresses those files and upload them. Similarly while downloading, you can instruct Cerulean to automatically decompress the blobs where content-encoding property of the blob is either 'gzip' or 'deflate'. This is not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer.
View file properties: When listing files and folders in a share, Cerulean displays the file properties like last modified date, content type etc. for the files in a share or a folder. This enables you to sort the files on these properties which is not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer. There you will need to fetch properties of each file individually to see those details.
One-Click Restore Snapshot: While both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enable you to manage snapshots for a file share, Cerulean goes a bit ahead and gives you an ability to restore a share snapshot with a single click. This is not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer.
4. Better Queue Resources Management
Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to manage your queue resources (queues and messages), however Cerulean adds some extra features there to make you as a developer more productive.
Dequeue Messages: Microsoft Storage Explorer allows you to dequeue messages but you can only dequeue a single message from the top of the queue. Furthermore, you can't really do anything with that message. With Cerulean, you can dequeue up to 32 messages from the top of the queue. You can update those dequeued messages by changing the message contents and/or visibility timeout and also delete those messages . This is not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer.
Copy/Move Messages: Microsoft Storage Explorer only allows you to copy a single message in the same queue through their 'Requeue Message' functionality. With Cerulean you can copy up to 32 messages from a queue to another queue in the same storage account. Furthermore, using Cerulean you can also move all messages from a queue to another queue in the same storage account.
Never Expiring Messages: Azure Storage allows you to create messages in a queue that will never expire. Cerulean enables you to create such messages. With Microsoft Storage Explorer, maximum time-to-live that you can set on a message is 7 days.
Queue Monitoring: Cerulean has this neat feature using which you can monitor the number of messages that are there in a queue in near real-time. The data is presented in both interactive chart and grid. This is a great way to keep an eye on the queue to ensure everything is working great with that queue. This feature is not available in Microsoft Storage Explorer.
5. Better Table Resources Management
Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to manage your table resources (tables and entities), however Cerulean adds some extra features there to make you as a developer more productive.
Built-in Query Manager: Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to write queries against your tables and execute them however with Cerulean you can save these queries in the application itself so that you don't have to type them over and over again. You can also mark a query as 'default' so that particular query will be pre-selected when you open up that table to manage entities. With Microsoft Storage Explorer, you will need to export each query as a JSON file on your local computer and then reimport them.
Better Download: Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to download entities on your local computer. With Cerulean you can download the data in multiple formats (JSON, CSV or Typed CSV). Furthermore you can download selected entities, entities matching a certain query or all entities from a table. With Microsoft Storage Explorer you only download selected entities and that too in either CSV or Typed CSV format (which is a system wide setting and not a per download setting).
Copy Entities: Microsoft Storage Explorer only allows you to copy an entire table. With Cerulean, you can copy selected entities, entities matching a certain query or all entities from a table to another table in same or different storage account. Furthermore, this functionality is not restricted to Azure Storage Tables only. With Cerulean, you can perform this copy operation between a Table in Azure Storage and a Table in Azure Cosmos DB account targeting Table API. You can seamlessly copy entities from a Storage Table to a Cosmos DB Table and vice versa. Please note that Cerulean does not support upload functionality available in Microsoft Storage Explorer. However copy entities functionality can be used in lieu of that if the purpose of download/upload entities is to copy the data.
Better Entities Management: Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to perform entities management operations. However Cerulean some additional features that would help you. For example, you can duplicate an entity to create a new entity from an existing entity. You can edit multiple entities together and add/update/delete attributes from those entities. Recently Microsoft Storage Explorer started supporting 'Binary' type entity attribute but you would need to enter the binary data as Base64 encoded string which is not very user friendly. Cerulean instead asks you to choose a file from your local computer and converts the contents of that file into a Base64 encoded string for you.
6. Secondary Endpoints Support (RA-GRS Accounts)
As you may already know, for Read-Access Geo-Redundant Storage (RAGRS) accounts you can read data at any time from secondary endpoints of that storage account (accountname-secondary.blob.core.windows.net). Cerulean is the only app that will allow you to do that without writing any code. Using Cerulean, you can connect to the secondary endpoints for Blob, Queue and Table Service of your Storage Account and explore the data there. This is not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer or any other Azure management tool.
7. Storage Analytics Support
Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer lets you explore the data collected by storage analytics in your Azure Storage account. However Cerulean has some extra features. First, it enables you to configure storage analytics settings for blob, file, queue and table service in your storage account which is not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer. Next, Cerulean nicely groups all storage analytics settings related blob containers and tables in a separate node whereas in Storage Explorer these containers/tables are shown along with your other containers/tables. Furthermore, you can simply choose to not display this node for each account separately in Cerulean where as in Storage Explorer, it is a system-wide setting and applies to all storage accounts.
8. Cloud Service (Classic) Diagnostics
If you use Classic Cloud Services, you already know that the diagnostics data collected by your Cloud Services (Web/Worker Roles) is stored in Azure Storage Tables and Blob Containers. While you can explore the contents of these tables and blob containers using Microsoft Storage Explorer, Cerulean gives you an intuitive UI to view and manage this diagnostics data. You can search for this data based on a number of parameters, filter the results, download the data and even purge old diagnostics data.
Azure Cosmos DB
| Feature | Cerulean | Storage Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Connect to Azure Cosmos DB accounts | ||
| Multiple API support | ||
| Manage databases | ||
| Manage containers | ||
| Manage items | ||
| Manage stored procedures, triggers and user-defined functions | ||
| Manage users |
Why you should consider Cerulean?
1. Cosmos DB Functionality is deprecated in Microsoft Storage Explorer
The biggest reason why you should consider using Cerulean over Microsoft Storage Explorer for managing Cosmos DB resources is because the functionality to manage Cosmos DB resources is deprecated in Microsoft Storage Explorer.
What that means is that new changes to Cosmos DB will not be implemented in Microsoft Storage Explorer and you're left with using old functionality whereas with Cerulean you will always stay current. Furthermore, you will need to install another tool just to manage Cosmos DB resources. With Cerulean, you just need a single tool to manage Cosmos DB resources along with other supported Azure resources.
2. Connect to Azure Cosmos DB Accounts
Using Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer, you can connect to your Azure Cosmos DB accounts using your Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) credentials or Account Name/Key combination. However Cerulean add some features that make the overall experience better.
With Resource Categorization, you can put your Cosmos DB accounts in different resource categories (e.g. Dev, Test, Prod) for better manageability. With Resource Permissions, you can open a Cosmos DB account in 'read-only' or 'read-write' mode to prevent accidental deletes and updates. You can assign friendly names to your Cosmos DB accounts for easier identification. These things are not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer.
3. Multiple API Support
Cosmos DB is a multi-model system that supports many data models (document, graph, key/value pair etc.). Cerulean today supports on SQL API, Gremlin (Graph) API and Table API where as Microsoft Storage Explorer also supports Mongo and Cassandra API apart from the ones supported by Cerulean.
Support for Mongo and Cassandra is definitely on our roadmap and these will show up in Cerulean in next few months if not sooner.
4. Better Database Management
Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to perform operations on the databases in your Cosmos DB account. However Cerulean adds some extra features there to make you as a developer more productive.
Database Throughput: As you already know that you can now configure throughput at the database level and that throughput will be shared by all containers in that database. Using Cerulean you can create a database with a provisioned throughput (both fixed and autoscale). Cerulean also enables you to change the throughput on the database. Both of these are not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer.
5. Better Container Management
Microsoft Azure Explorer
Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to perform operations on the containers in a database in your Cosmos DB account. However Cerulean adds some extra features there to make you as a developer more productive.
Container Throughput: Using Cerulean you can create a container with either provisioned throughput (both fixed and autoscale) on the container or one that will share throughput of the database. Cerulean also enables you to change the throughput on the container. Microsoft Storage Explorer only lets you create a container with provisioned throughput.
Container Indexing Policy: When creating a container, Cerulean allows you to define indexing policy for that container. You can define included/excluded paths, composite indexes, and spatial indexes. You can also edit indexing policies on an existing container. Microsoft Storage Explorer does not have this capability.
Unique Key Policy: When creating a container, Cerulean allows you to define unique key policy on a container. You can also view unique key policy on an existing container. Microsoft Storage Explorer does not have this capability.
Document Time-To-Live (TTL): When creating a container, Cerulean allows you to define time-to-live (TTL) policy on a container for the documents in that container. You can also update TTL policy on an existing container. Microsoft Storage Explorer does not have this capability.
6. Better Items (Documents, Vertices/Edges, Entities) Management
Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to manage items (documents, vertices/edges, entities) in a containers in your Cosmos DB account. However Cerulean adds some extra features there to make you as a developer more productive. For Cosmos DB accounts targeting Table API, please see 'Better Table Resources Management' section under Azure Storage above.
Built-in Query Manager: Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to write queries against your containers and execute them however with Cerulean you can save these queries in the application itself so that you don't have to type them over and over again. You can also mark a query as 'default' so that particular query will be pre-selected when you open up that table to manage entities. Microsoft Storage Explorer does not have this capability.
SQL API Documents: Using Cerulean, you can view the query result (documents) in both tabular (as rows and columns) as well as JSON format. Microsoft Storage Explorer only shows the data in JSON format. Furthermore Cerulean also displays response headers that are sent as part of the query result which is not shown by Microsoft Storage Explorer. Using Cerulean you can delete multiple documents from a container. Microsoft Storage Explorer only allows you to delete one document at a time. Using Cerulean, you can also copy documents from one container to another in same or different accounts. This is not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer.
Graph Vertices/Edges: Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer shows the query result (vertices/edges) in both graph as well as JSON format. Furthermore Cerulean also displays response headers that are sent as part of the query result which is not shown by Microsoft Storage Explorer. When querying graph resources, using Cerulean you can issue multiple queries (e.g. g.V();g.E()) which is not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer where you can only issue a single query. Also Cerulean provides rich customization of vertices and edges by enabling you to change the shape/color/size of vertices and edges.
Azure Subscription
| Feature | Cerulean | Storage Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Connect to Azure Subscriptions | ||
| Basic resource management | ||
| Integrated Azure Portal & Cloud Shell |
Why you should consider Cerulean?
1. Manage Azure Resources
Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to connect to your Azure Subscription using either 'Work/School' or 'Personal' Microsoft accounts however Cerulean goes a step beyond and enables you to perform basic management operations on the supported resources.
For example, using both Cerulean and Storage Explorer you can list storage accounts in your Azure Subscription but using Cerulean you can not only view the access keys but also regenerate them if needed.
2. Integrated Azure Portal
Cerulean has this nifty feature using which you can directly launch Azure Portal from inside the application and Portal opens up as another tab inside the application only. No need to toggle between Cerulean and Web Browser to manage your Azure resources in Azure Portal.
3. Integrated Azure Cloud Shell
If you are a developer who likes to work with both a UI based application and command-line interface, Cerulean has you covered. You can directly launch Azure Cloud Shell from inside the application and it opens up as another tab in the application. Using either Azure PowerShell or Azure CLI tools, you can easily manage your Azure resources from Cloud Shell inside Cerulean itself. This is not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer.
4. Resource Permissions
Even though Azure has a very strong and granular role-based access control (RBAC), it does not protect you from accidental deletes and updates when you are assigned a role that gives you the capability of performing all operations on resources in your Azure Subscription. This is where Cerulean can help you.
Using Cerulean, with one simple click you can change how you would like to interact with your Azure Subscription inside the application. You can open an Azure Subscription in read-only mode inside Cerulean and that will prevent you from making any changes (add, update, and delete) for all resources inside that Subscription when using Cerulean. Or you can open a Subscription in read-write mode inside Cerulean and that will prevent you from deleting any resource yet allowing you to make changes (add, update) for all resources inside that subscription.
Azure Service Bus
| Feature | Cerulean | Storage Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure Service Bus Resources |
Microsoft Storage Explorer does not have the capability to manage your Azure Service Bus resources (namespaces, queues & messages, and topics, subscriptions & messages). So if you're looking for an app that gives you a comprehensive support for managing your Azure Service Bus resources as well as other Azure resources, Cerulean can certainly be helpful there.
Azure Cognitive Search
| Feature | Cerulean | Storage Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure Cognitive Search Resources |
Microsoft Storage Explorer does not have the capability to manage your Azure Cognitive Search resources (indexes, data sources, indexers, synonym maps, skillsets, and more). So if you're looking for an app that gives you a comprehensive support for managing your Azure Cognitive Search resources as well as other Azure resources, Cerulean can certainly be helpful there.
Azure Redis Cache
| Feature | Cerulean | Storage Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure Redis Cache Resources |
Microsoft Storage Explorer does not have the capability to manage your Azure Redis Cache resources (database, keys and more), So if you're looking for an app that gives you comprehensive support for managing your Azure Redis Cache resources as well as other Azure resources, Cerulean can certainly be helpful there.
Azure Cloud Services (Classic)
Microsoft Storage Explorer Tool
| Feature | Cerulean | Storage Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Classic Cloud Services |
Microsoft Storage Explorer does not have the capability to manage your Azure Classic Cloud Services, So if you're looking for an app that gives you comprehensive support for managing your Azure Classic Cloud Service resources as well as other Azure resources, Cerulean can certainly be helpful there.
Azure Disks
| Feature | Cerulean | Storage Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Manage Azure Disks |
Cerulean today does not have direct support for managing disks that are there in your Azure Subscription. If you're looking for an app that enables you to manage disks, we would recommend that you use Microsoft Storage Explorer. You can however manage the disks that are there in your Azure Subscriptions by either launching Azure Portal or Azure Cloud Shell from inside Cerulean and use the features/commands available in Azure Portal/ Cloud Shell for managing disks.
Microsoft Storage Explorer Ubuntu
Other Features
| Feature | Cerulean | Storage Explorer |
|---|---|---|
| Resource Categorization | ||
| Resource Permission | ||
| Proxy Support | ||
| Customizable | ||
| Quick Access/Favorites | ||
| UI Theme | ||
| Multi-Lingual |
Apart from providing support for managing Azure resources, both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer have other convenience features that would make your life as a developer easy. Following are some of those features.
Resource Categorization: Resource categorization is a convenience feature in Cerulean using which you put your resources in different categories like all development resources in 'Dev' category, all production resources in 'Prod' category etc. You can then view the resources either by resource type (e.g. all storage accounts are shown together), resource group (e.g. all resources in 'Dev' category are shown together or resource group and type (resources are first grouped by resource group and then by resource type). This feature is not available in Microsoft Storage Explorer.
Resource Permission: Resource permission is a convenience feature in Cerulean using which you can view and manage your resources in 3 modes: 1) In 'read-only' mode, you can only view the resources and you will not be allowed to perform any create, update or delete operations on the resources. 2) In 'read-write' mode, you can view the resources and are allowed to perform create and update operations but will not be allowed any delete operations on the resources. 3) In 'full' mode (which is thde default mode), you will be allowed to perform any operations on the resources. This is a great feature to prevent accidental deletes and updates. This feature is not available in Microsoft Storage Explorer.
Proxy Support: Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer enables you to connect to your Azure resources from behind a proxy server.
Customizable: Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer provide a lot of customization features depending on the services supported.
Quick Access/Favorites: Quick access (similar to bookmarks) functionality allows you to mark certain resources as favorites so that you can access them quickly without having to navigate through resource hierarchy. Both Cerulean and Microsoft Storage Explorer provide this functionality. There are certain features in Cerulean when it comes to favorites that are not there in Microsoft Storage Explorer. In Cerulean, you can group these favorite resources in folders. Also, you can assign a friendly name to a favorite resource in Cerulean only. Furthermore, like other resources you can open a favorite in 'read-only' or 'read-write' mode to prevent accidental deletes and updates. These features are not possible with Microsoft Storage Explorer.
UI Theme: UI theme is another feature available only in Microsoft Storage Explorer using which you can change the theme (look and feel) of the application. This is also on our roadmap.
Multi-Lingual: Cerulean is only available in English whereas Microsoft Storage Explorer in available in other languages as well. So if you're looking for an Azure management app that is available in a language other than English, we recommend that you use Microsoft Storage Explorer.