There are various ways of storing data and making it available to all users, especially for businesses. In addition to the conventional option, file storage, and the more recent option, block storage, object storage has attracted a lot of attention in recent years. It is also known as object-based storage and is now used in many professional settings. Cloud providers also offer this modern storage method.
While file storage uses complete files when storing data and block storage divides files into blocks of equal size, object storage stores data as objects. An object can be imagined as a package. It contains the data as well as numerous metadata and a unique ID. This ID enables a flat structure. Instead of a complex folder structure, data in object-based storage is stored side by side. The actual location (local or remote) is irrelevant.
In contrast to conventional file storage, the metadata for object-based storage is freely selectable. Instead of only storing information about the name, creation date, file type, etc. individual metadata can be defined for each file. For example, information from the corresponding application can be integrated or user data can be inserted.
Access to the data, i.e. communication with the storage, occurs via Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and via a REST API. This simplifies the connection between client and object storage, because any computer can handle HTTP, which is common practice on the Internet. The storage can be addressed with a few commands:
Object storage offers several advantages. On the one hand, the flat structure provides fast access. Rather than the user specifying the storage space, the system does this automatically. Users do not see where the object is actually located. But this is not important since the object can be found and accessed directly via the unique ID. This is why object storage is ideal for a public cloud. Storage space can be ideally used in this way.
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The flat structure also allows the high scalability of object storage. If more resources are needed, new capacities can be easily added by creating a new storage node. The other advantage is the rich metadata, which can be user-defined. This allows data to be analyzed much more effectively than is possible with other storage methods.
On the other hand, object storage is not particularly good in terms of performance. Although data can be retrieved quickly, modifying objects is tedious. Instead of changing data directly, a completely new object must be created each time. This is why object storage is ideal for very large amounts of data and especially if the data is static. If frequent changes are necessary, object-based storage is not the best option.
| Advantages | Disadvantages |
|---|---|
| Highly scalable | Changes are time-consuming |
| Flat structure | |
| Rich metadata |
Which storage method is the perfect one? It depends a lot on what it is used for. Block, object or file system - each method has its own specific properties and is therefore suitable for different tasks.
| Object storage | Block storage | File storage | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Unit | Object | Block | File |
| Scalability | Highly scalable | Highly scalable | Poorly scalable |
| Performance | Bad | Good | Average |
| Direct unit updates | No | Yes | Yes |
| Price | Average | High | Low |
| Metadata | Many | No | Only selected |
| Protocols | HTTP | FC/iSCSI | SMB/NFS |
| Application | Static data/cloud storage | Transactional databases | File exchange |
Growing sums of data require cost-effective, high-performance storage solutions. One option for fulfilling this requirement is a network attached storage. In business contexts, this model has already established itself as a viable alternative to file servers, hard drives, and the cloud. Private users have also caught on and use NAS systems at home. But what is a NAS? Read on, and we’ll show you...
Portable storage media such as CDs or USB sticks are still in demand when making backups or transferring files to another device. More and more often however, users also rely on cloud storage solutions that allow data to be outsourced to an external server environment. But what exactly is cloud storage? And how does this storage model offered by various providers work?
Save your file and voilà! When deciding on a storage method, many users concentrate on the amount of space provided and don’t take anything else into account. However, there is a vast array of storage options, each with their own qualities. Let’s look at block storage. How does block storage work and what are its advantages?
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