Everything a running application creates or serves has to live somewhere. The cloud offers three fundamentally different storage types — each suited to a different job — plus a tiering system that keeps costs sensible as data ages. This chapter maps all of it, then lines up the names each major provider uses.
4 topics
"Cloud storage" sounds like a single thing, but it isn't. Depending on what you need — a fast disk for one server, a shared folder for a team, or a bottomless place to keep millions of photos — you reach for a completely different kind of storage. Picking the wrong one is a real, common design mistake.
Four topics cover the full picture. First, the three storage types and what makes each different. Then a closer look at object storage, the type behind most of what the web serves. Then storage tiers — the idea that you pay less when you access data rarely. And finally, a side-by-side map of the names each cloud uses, so any provider's storage page becomes immediately readable.
Which storage type fits the job?
A disk for one machine (server OS or database)?→Block storage
A shared folder many machines read and write at once?→File storage
Lots of files, media, or backups served over the web?→Object storage