Choose server specs

Select your own configuration

Configuration 1
Configuration 2
Configuration 3
Type ?
Type
CPU ?
CPU
RAM ?
RAM
SSD Disk ?
SSD Disk
Operating system ?
Operating system
Managed ?
Managed

TOTAL
Total monthly
$ 4 / mo
$ 4
$ 4

Choose Your Choice of Server Across the Globe

Discover the FeaturesGet complete control over where you create your file storage system with access to 20 Cloud hosting locations, including North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, and North America. Choosing the correct geo-located server gives you the lowest latency when serving your application requests data. It improves loading times and also benefits your business's SEO.

Additionally, all the stored data goes through 3-way storage replication. It offers data protection with increased durability and longevity. So, if your business relies on always-available data storage, you're in the right hands!

Our network-attached storage systems are optimized for low latency and maximum throughput. It is also capable of offering scalability and provides backup and recovery mechanisms. Furthermore, end-to-end data integrity improves file storage protection.

Cloud Block Storage: Choosing the Best Option for You

Understanding data services is crucial to your success. As a cloud storage system dictates how your cloud app interacts, you must have complete knowledge of cloud block Storage.

A cloud Block Storage system provides logical storage volumes across a virtualized or storage area network. This means you can control the Block Storage through a guest operating system, as it acts as a physical disk. You can add more storage by adding Block Storage volumes, similar to how you add physical storage to a server.

16 locations worldwide

What is Block Storage

Block Storage technology provides direct access to data through proper data storage and storage device controls. It is a fast yet effective way to store data. Here, the storage administrator controls each Block of Storage with a unique identifier associated with each one of them. Technically, they act as separate hard drives and hence offer a fixed-sized raw capacity.

The storage administrator requires a special software program to make Block Storage work across multiple environments. This program is separate from storage media but can create and deploy Block Storage. Moreover, the software program also offers data retrieval by assembling the required blocks before serving them as a file to the user. The efficient approach makes it a number one choice for storage area networks.

Benefits of Block Storage

Using Block Storage for your business can bring multiple benefits. These include:


  • High-Performance Workloads Handling

    Block Storage enables organizations to handle high-performance workloads. Under the hood, Block Storage uses metadata to store important information, including unique identifiers. This unique identification for each block is then used for read/write operations.

    This approach reduces the server overhead significantly, improving performance, especially for latency-sensitive applications such as databases.

    Another reason why Block Storage is so fast is that they offer multiple paths to data. In comparison, a file storage system only has one path to data.

  • Flexibility

    Block Storage excels at flexibility. For example, you can easily add block Storage volumes if you want to add more storage. Apart from that, the ability to assign individual blocks to the different operating systems allows the storage administrator and developers to share resources across environments, improving data availability.

  • Scalability

    Block Storage is highly scalable due to how it manages block Storage. Its architecture can grow without slowing down and quickly meet businesses growing demand.

  • Bootable

    Any block Storage in a SAN can boot the operating system directly. However, you need access to a BIOS-enabled virtual server to do a SAN boot.

  • Filesystem overhead

    Using block Storage can remove Input/Output(IO) bottlenecks. This removes the operating system overhead for performing read/write activities. Apache, PHP, etc., can handle the read/write operations.

  • Better control and Improved permission

    Storage administrators get complete control over the data using the Block Storage system. They can optimize the data storage to store in specific regions for better accessibility and performance. Data permissions are also easy to manage with Block Storage and can be done from multiple operating systems.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is cloud storage?

Cloud storage in a cloud environment provides cloud applications and services to store data and access them from locally attached devices or the internet. The cloud or VPS provider manages the storage to ensure optimal performance and accessibility. Also, cloud storage, such as Block Storage, is highly scalable, giving the necessary scalability.

What storage technology do we use for block storage?

We use NVMe(Non-Volatile Memory Express) SSDs to power block storage. NVMe SSDs work great with Block Storage systems and architecture, making data storage and retrieval even faster. You also get full root access which you can use to manage the virtual machine file system.

How does block storage work?

Technically, Block Storage works by breaking data into unique fixed-sized blocks. So, if a file needs to be stored, it is broken down into individual data storage(blocks) and then stored nonsequentially.

However, developers must create a data lookup table that handles key files or data information such as file type, timestamp, and ownership to make it work.

We use specialized software to handle all the intricacies of block Storage. Moreover, you can use multiple block Storage across different operating systems to improve data accessibility.

Which one should you choose? File storage, block Storage, or object storage?

The choice of cloud storage depends on multiple factors. Object storage and block Storage are the best picks if you want the best searchability. However, file storage can do the trick if you have a simple file system. Apart from that, it would be best to look at associated costs, with block and file storage requiring more cost than object storage. In terms of retrievability and metadata handling, object storage is the best. Lastly, you must understand your business requirement carefully before making a choice.

What is the difference between Block Storage and Object Storage?

The core difference between Block Storage and Object Storage is how they store data. In Block Storage, the file is divided into small chunks of data known as blocks(each with its unique identifier). In Object Storage, data is stored as objects. These objects have better metadata and file mapping. Moreover, the objects also have a globally unique identifier for easy storage and accessibility in distributed storage systems. Thus, Objects have three components: file mapping, metadata, and unique identifiers.

In Block Storage vs. Object Storage battle, there is no clear winner. That's because of how they operate. Due to how Object Storage works, it is cheaper and offers higher scalability compared to Block Storage. Also, Object Storage is more customizable. The primary uses of Object Storage are to protect against data loss, and the ability to access data across HTTP and REST API calls. Overall, Object Storage's advantages include scale-out architecture, customizable metadata, flexible data protection options, high sequential throughput performance, and lower cost of ownership.

On the other hand, Block Storage is more flexible, especially when storing continuous data updates. Object storage systems don't let you edit a file part but only update as a whole as they are complete units. This can slow down performance in use cases where there is a need to update data frequently. It also shines when handling data from different operating systems.

What is the difference between File storage and Block Storage?

File storage systems hierarchically store data. Here, the files are stored as received with little to no modifications. It is similar to storing data locally or on a client's computer. As there is no going behind the scenes, file storage systems offer loading and accessibility from multiple client devices. File storage is also great for backups, especially if backups are done at regular intervals.

The advantage of File Storage includes low price, ease of use, and scalability. However, it needs faster access time due to the underlying storage system philosophy. And some of the use cases of file storage include web serving, analytics, content management, database backups, development tools, and much more.

Regarding File Storage vs. Block Storage, which one is superior? In terms of scalability and performance, Block Storage beats File Storage significantly. Block Storage breaks files down into smaller data blocks with unique identification numbers. As a result, it leads to better performance and scalability. Block Storage is the way to go if you're working with a mission-critical application.

Block storage is excellent for unstructured data storage, whereas File storage is best for structured data storage.

What are Block Storage Pros and Cons?

Block Storage is one of the most common cloud storage. However, that doesn't mean it doesn't have any cons.

Block Storage pros include high performance, easy file modifications, operating system bootability, better control, and high availability. Regarding drawbacks, Block Storage suffers from metadata limitations that can make it less desirable for projects requiring higher metadata information for higher performance. Apart from that, Block Storage is not cheap, especially if you're building your own SAN network. Lastly, block storage accessibility is tightly bound to the server, making it hard for storage administrators to access the data. However, there are ways to access data from other servers, but it can impact performance.

What are Storage area networks?

Storage area networks(SANs) are high-performance networks that allow storage devices to access the network. In addition to storage elements, SAN comprises switches and hosts. SANs are designed to work across different protocols, topologies, and technologies.

Block Storage solutions are a type of SAN. You get multiple benefits from block Storage SAN, including improved application availability, storage effectiveness, and increased performance.