# Access to Microsoft Azure

To access Azure services from PDI, you must first create and configure your Azure Data Lake Storage Gen2 and Blob Storage services, enabling the hierarchical namespace, which provides improved file system performance.

* Access to the Azure services requires an Azure account with an active subscription. See [Create an account for free](https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/free/?ref=microsoft.com\&utm_source=microsoft.com\&utm_medium=docs\&utm_campaign=visualstudio).
* Access to Azure Storage requires an Azure Storage account. See [Create a storage account](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/storage/common/storage-account-create?tabs=azure-portal).


---

# Agent Instructions: Querying This Documentation

If you need additional information that is not directly available in this page, you can query the documentation dynamically by asking a question.

Perform an HTTP GET request on the current page URL with the `ask` query parameter:

```
GET https://docs.pentaho.com/pdia-data-integration/9.3-data-integration/data-integration-perspective-in-the-pdi-client/virtual-file-system-browser/before-you-begin-vfs-connections/access-to-microsoft-azure.md?ask=<question>
```

The question should be specific, self-contained, and written in natural language.
The response will contain a direct answer to the question and relevant excerpts and sources from the documentation.

Use this mechanism when the answer is not explicitly present in the current page, you need clarification or additional context, or you want to retrieve related documentation sections.