diff --git a/Cargo.lock b/Cargo.lock
index c7af140f7d..7cb65dd626 100644
--- a/Cargo.lock
+++ b/Cargo.lock
@@ -4667,6 +4667,7 @@ dependencies = [
  "once_cell",
  "pin-project-lite",
  "rand 0.8.5",
+ "reqwest 0.11.19",
  "scopeguard",
  "serde",
  "serde_json",
diff --git a/libs/remote_storage/Cargo.toml b/libs/remote_storage/Cargo.toml
index 1816825bda..ead140adc7 100644
--- a/libs/remote_storage/Cargo.toml
+++ b/libs/remote_storage/Cargo.toml
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ camino = { workspace = true, features = ["serde1"] }
 humantime-serde.workspace = true
 hyper = { workspace = true, features = ["client"] }
 futures.workspace = true
+reqwest = { version = "0.11", default-features = false, features = ["rustls-tls"] }
 serde.workspace = true
 serde_json.workspace = true
 tokio = { workspace = true, features = ["sync", "fs", "io-util"] }
diff --git a/libs/remote_storage/src/azure_blob.rs b/libs/remote_storage/src/azure_blob.rs
index 1c0d43d479..345f559798 100644
--- a/libs/remote_storage/src/azure_blob.rs
+++ b/libs/remote_storage/src/azure_blob.rs
@@ -15,6 +15,8 @@ use std::time::SystemTime;
 use super::REMOTE_STORAGE_PREFIX_SEPARATOR;
 use anyhow::Result;
 use azure_core::request_options::{IfMatchCondition, MaxResults, Metadata, Range};
+use azure_core::HttpClient;
+use azure_core::TransportOptions;
 use azure_core::{Continuable, RetryOptions};
 use azure_identity::DefaultAzureCredential;
 use azure_storage::StorageCredentials;
@@ -71,7 +73,9 @@ impl AzureBlobStorage {
         };
 
         // we have an outer retry
-        let builder = ClientBuilder::new(account, credentials).retry(RetryOptions::none());
+        let builder = ClientBuilder::new(account, credentials)
+            .retry(RetryOptions::none())
+            .transport(TransportOptions::new(reqwest_client(true)));
 
         let client = builder.container_client(azure_config.container_name.to_owned());
 
@@ -244,6 +248,15 @@ impl AzureBlobStorage {
     }
 }
 
+fn reqwest_client(allow_idle_connections: bool) -> Arc<dyn HttpClient> {
+    let max_idle = if allow_idle_connections { 8 } else { 0 };
+    let client = reqwest::ClientBuilder::new()
+        .pool_max_idle_per_host(max_idle)
+        .build()
+        .expect("failed to build `reqwest` client");
+    Arc::new(client)
+}
+
 fn to_azure_metadata(metadata: StorageMetadata) -> Metadata {
     let mut res = Metadata::new();
     for (k, v) in metadata.0.into_iter() {