BlobBridge surfaces Azure Blob Storage inside SharePoint without migrating files back into SharePoint and without sending users to a separate portal.
| Option | How it works | Strengths | Limits | Best fit |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| BlobBridge | SPFx web part surfaces customer-owned Azure Blob containers inside SharePoint. | SharePoint-based access, no migration back into SharePoint, no separate end-user portal, tenant-wide licence. | Uses configured SAS token permissions. Not full SharePoint library parity. | Large files, archive access, media libraries and storage-cost reduction where users still work from SharePoint. |
| Buy more SharePoint storage | Keep files in SharePoint and buy Microsoft 365 storage capacity. | Full SharePoint document features remain available. | Higher storage cost for large or low-collaboration content. | Active collaboration files needing SharePoint metadata, co-authoring, retention labels or Microsoft Search. |
| Azure portal or Storage Explorer | Users access storage directly through Azure tooling. | Direct administrative access to Azure Storage. | Requires Azure-facing tools and training. Poor fit for normal SharePoint users. | Administrators and technical operations teams. |
| Migration or sync | Move or copy files between SharePoint and Azure Storage using tools or workflows. | Can support transitional projects and selected duplication scenarios. | Creates migration effort, sync rules, duplicate data or source-of-truth questions. | One-off migrations or controlled integration workflows. |
| SharePoint Embedded | API-only Microsoft platform for storing files in Microsoft 365 infrastructure via Microsoft Graph; requires custom app development to surface a user interface. | Full Microsoft 365 compliance, Purview, co-authoring and Copilot integration; content stays in the tenant. | Requires developer resource to build; files live in Microsoft 365 storage, not Azure Blob Storage, so there is no Azure Blob cost reduction benefit. | ISVs or enterprises building custom document apps on Microsoft 365 infrastructure. |
| Separate file portal | Give users another application for blob-stored files. | Can be tailored to a specific process. | Another user experience, another access route and more rollout work. | Specialist workflows that do not need to live in SharePoint. |
Recent product improvements
- Improved support for special characters in file and folder paths.
- Search now works across the current folder and its subfolders.
- Searching from the container root searches the full container.
- Large folders now support paged loading with Load more.
- Improved folder rename and delete handling, including empty folders created through BlobBridge.
- Improved upload experience, including upload from computer or selecting a file from SharePoint.
- Optional overwrite handling when uploading files.
- Sorting by name, type, size, and modified date.
- Modified dates now show in local time.
- Improved empty-folder and error messages.
- Simplified file opening behaviour with default browser behaviour or Prefer download.
Important limitation
BlobBridge is not a full SharePoint document library replacement. It is designed to provide SharePoint-based access to blob-stored files where cost, scale or archive access makes SharePoint storage less suitable.
Deployment experience
Early customer deployments have shown same-day setup is realistic where the Azure Storage account, SAS token and SharePoint App Catalog are already available.
Customer feedback has directly shaped recent improvements, including upload options, folder and subfolder search, large-folder Load more and improved file and folder handling.
BlobBridge is designed for teams that want SharePoint-based access to Azure Blob Storage without sending end users to the Azure portal.