An introduction.
It is argued that the concept of Object storage was introduced in the nineties, but thanks to the advancement of technology, and cloud providers like Amazon Web Services with their S3 offering, it has evolved quite substantially. These days, it is a common technology in use for many different organisations – especially those that have copious amounts of unstructured data residing in their environments.
What is Object Storage
Object storage is a type of data storage architecture that is designed to store enormous amounts of unstructured data, such as video, audio, and text files. It is based on the idea of storing data as “objects” rather than as files in a hierarchical file system, as is common with traditional file storage systems. That is, with object storage, the data blocks of a file are kept together as an object, along with its relevant metadata, and stored in a flat data environment known as a storage pool.
One key feature of object storage is that it is highly scalable, meaning that it can also handle a high volume of requests without requiring significant additional infrastructure. This makes it well-suited for use cases such as storing and managing data for cloud applications, storing and delivering media content, and storing data for big data and analytics applications.
Object storage systems typically include several features designed to improve data reliability and durability, such as redundant storage, versioning, and the ability to automatically replicate data across multiple locations. They may also include features such as built-in data protection, data encryption, and the ability to perform data analytics on stored data.
Overall, object storage is a flexible and scalable data storage solution that is well-suited for storing and managing massive amounts of unstructured data, in an uncomplex, cost-efficient way. And what is a big benefit is that the storage pool containing the object storage makes searching and locating the right data extremely easy due to its form factor and its design.
Use cases
Cloud-born or Cloud-native applications – These are apps designed or “born” in the cloud, developers can make use of cloud-based object storage as a persistent data store when writing their next-generation cloud applications. Apps that are intended for smart devices including tablets, mobiles and laptops, can collect and store IoT-centric data using Object Storage
AI and big data analytics: Build a centralized data repository, leveraging cost-effective and scalable object storage. Collect and store unlimited amounts of data of any type, from any source. Query this data to perform big data analytics and gain valuable information about your customers, your operations, and the market you serve.
Who are the Players?
The two biggest players we will look at are Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure, both offer Object Storage and of course, both have their own advantages and disadvantages that need to be considered when navigating and choosing Object storage providers.
Note: There are many other providers that have Object storage offerings – each with its own merits and shortcomings but for the purpose of this article we will only cover Google Cloud and Microsoft Azure
Why should my organisation care about Object Storage?
Object storage can provide cost savings, scalability, and durability benefits for organizations. Because object storage stores data as discrete objects, rather than in a file hierarchy, as mentioned it can be more cost-effective for storing large amounts of unstructured data, such as videos, images, and backups. Additionally, object storage is designed to be highly scalable, allowing organizations to add storage capacity as needed without incurring the costs and complexity of traditional storage solutions.
Finally, object storage is typically built with data durability in mind, making it an excellent choice for data that needs to be retained for extended periods of time.
Our next post will dive deeper with a specific look into the world of Azure’s offering as well as Google Cloud’s offering for Object storage.
And of course, I will also tie in how this can also be used to tie in with your business continuity story using a solution like BDR suite – https://www.bdrsuite.com
