Azure Blob Storage URL : WASB:// vs HTTP://

There is another scheme: wasbs which enables secured transfers with hadoop clients. If you always want secured transfers with your storage account you can enable secured transfers configuration through Azure portal.

Just to refine the previous answer a bit: wasb is the hdfs compatible API on top of Azure blob storage. So, using it you can access blobs from any hdfs client, be it part of HDInsight, a self installed IaaS hadoop cluster etc.

From what I understand, wasb://[email protected] is used to access blob storage through HDInsight (ref: http://www.windowsazure.com/en-us/documentation/articles/hdinsight-use-blob-storage/) where as https://[email protected] is used to access blobs through clients supporting HTTP protocol (web browsers etc.).