Types of cloud storage

Currently, storing data can be a problem, since the volume grows day by day, the cost of having an infrastructure is high, to which is added maintenance and investment in case more capacity is needed. QFor this reason, suppliers of cloud storage They offer services that allow you to have all the information in one place without having to worry about the cost of a data center, maintenance, hardware amortization, updates or even increasing storage space.

He cloud storage service It is divided into three types: objects, files, and blocks. Among these there are 2 differentiating points, one is the internal structure, how they treat the data, which leads to different results in terms of performance. The other factor is the purpose or need to store the files/data, depending on this one or another type will be chosen.

In the next post we will detail the main characteristics between object storage, file storage and block storage.

1. Object storage

This is the most common type of storage that we can find since it supports all types of formats.

1.1. What is cloud object storage?

As we mentioned, there is no limit on the format of objects, whether it is unstructured data, such as videos, photos, audio files. In other words any file format Whatever we want we can store it in this category.

Depending on the provider, the way of calculating costs may vary and there may be some limitations. In the vast majority of cases the initial setup is simple and in just a few steps you can start upload data to the cloud.

1.2. What are the benefits of cloud object storage?

Among the main benefits is the issue of having the data available no matter where we are since They are in the cloud.

Another strong point is the fact that both the cost of the data center and maintenance are nullified, since everything the hardware is on behalf of the cloud service provider, this eliminates the need to have a team that carries out controls on the components or, as happens in many cases, to have hired a company specialized in these issues.

There is also the fact that the servers that we use in the cloud have different hosting points, giving rise to having the data distributed in different parts of the world for one lower latency when you want to use them.

It is important to emphasize that the data transfer speed in most cases is limited by the local bandwidth and not by the server itself.

1.3. How can GCP help you with your cloud object storage needs?

Google Cloud Platform offers a top-notch solution for this called Cloud Storage, which consists of all the benefits mentioned above with some special features.

First of all, it has a class system, where depending on the number of times we access our files, the storage cost will vary.

These classes are Standard (no limit), Nearline (30 days), Coldline (90 days), Archive (365 days).

This gives the possibility of having backups of disaster recovery in Archive with an extremely low cost at the same time that we have files that we access daily for daily use and that each one has a different cost.

We can also manage access permissions to files in a granular way, either individually, by folders or by each bucket we have.

2. File storage

Commonly this type of cloud storage It is used to store files coming from applications.

The structure that applies is hierarchy, folders and files. It is very similar to when we work with files locally with the difference that we do not depend on physical hardware to store them and we do not have to worry about running out of space.

Also, as we have talked about throughout the blog, we will have access to all our files from anywhere as long as we have Internet connection.

2.1. How does cloud file storage help with collaboration?

Thanks to being in the cloud, it is available to anyone who has access, it will only require an internet connection and depending on the provider, software or directly from the browser.

You can also integrate with local systems, which results in uploading and managing files more easily.

2.2. What are the requirements for cloud file storage?

The only requirement to be able to use these services is to have a cloud provider and one billing account enabled. As for the rest, all that remains is to access and perform the basic configurations, but it is a great advantage that all this can be done immediately and in a few minutes start using the service.

3. Block storage

This type of storage is the most specific and distant from the end user since it is commonly It is used by companies given the focus it has.

It is usually used as database for ERP systems which, due to their demand for capacity, require a dedicated storage system with the lowest possible latency.

3.1. What is block storage?

This storage system saves data in blocks, each of which is identified by a unique ID, resulting in greater storage and recovery performance than other types of storage.

Among the 3 types of storage, this could be considered the most complex due to the way it works, since takes each data or file passed to it and divides it into blocks (hence its name), which leads developers to design a lookup table of data that allows them to manage the storage of information.

3.2. What are the benefits of block storage?

The benefits are directly related to the type of storage in question. The high read/write capacity is the great differentiator, making it have the better performance.

In turn it is highly scalable due to the way it handles the files, thus achieving from the beginning the ability to project the growth of the stored data without the need to later migrate to other types of storage.