Understanding Cloud Object Storage in Securing Your Data
As per the IDC's prediction, "unstructured data will represent 80% of data worldwide by 2025." ...
Modern enterprise storage for primary workloads aims at three crucial parameters wherein block storage wins. These are:
Luckily, the block storage system for databases fulfills all these requirements. Today, more and more businesses have realized its flexibility and versatility in storing applications or file systems. Obviously, choosing the right storage system solely depends upon your specific storage requirements and their impact on the speed and performance of IT operations. But what makes this storage architecture a popular choice for most enterprises? Let’s find out.
Block storage or block-level storage is a type of IT architecture that stores data in the form of a file system. The block-level storage model store the data files in volumes on NAS (Network Attached Storage) )/ SAN (Storage Area Network). Some of the best benefits that block-based cloud storage offers are:
Unlike object storage, you can store the data in fixed-sized blocks. This makes it easy to index and search the data by adding context to the file. You can split each block into multiple evenly sized blocks on the Storage Area Network (SAN). Block storage distributes data files across multiple environments. As a result, you easily locate the correct address of the blocks & retrieve the files quickly. Based on the users’ or application request for file retrieval, the SAN system gets the block and presents the file.
The SAN application lets you configure the blocks to run databases or transactions efficiently. As a result, you can easily overwrite the blocks or applications that are changing. Also, you can configure the blocks to run applications like databases or transactions that demand continuous accessibility, modifications, and security. Again, if you are creating new file systems or deleting older files in servers, the older versions will still be available.
Block-level storage plays a critical role in organizing and storing all your enterprise applications. Depending on the workload types, some of the best use cases of this storage system are:
So you see, block storage works best as the storage capacity can adapt with your growing data size. Not only it offers the simplest way to store data, but also it is optimized for higher performance and scalability. This lets you fine-tune server performance & change the volume types without any extra cost involved.
Indeed, block as a storage solution enjoys certain distinct advantages for general-purpose workloads. Let’s count upon them:
Interestingly, block storage takes over other options of storing data when it comes to faster data access. It’s important to realize that the larger the block size, the faster the input/output per second (IOPs). So, if you are choosing the correct block size, you can optimize access speed, modify files, and achieve high performance for data blocks. But you must go for the right storage strategy that can optimize cost and achieve peak efficiency. So, which storage service type is right for your workload needs? Notable examples of AWS storage types include Amazon EFS, Amazon EBS, Amazon S3 storage. Again, Azure storage and Google cloud storage are two different service models that provide storage in standard and premium versions.
To achieve the best ROI, you must understand what block storage is and the unique advantages that it has to offer. Indeed, this type of storage is highly flexible as it lets you create additional storage by adding or attaching new blocks without sacrificing performance. Zmanda offers a wide range of flexible block storage backups through the tape, tape libraries, disks (DAS, NAS & SAN, file servers, RAID), & optical jukeboxes. For quick recovery of databases, Zmanda makes it easier for customers to configure Amazon S3 storage. Besides, Zmanda validates each block that contains a performance tier residing in Amazon S3. As a result, you can access data faster with locally hosted NAS or direct-attached storage. As an open-source backup, Zmanda’s DR integration with Google cloud storage, Azure storage, and AWS storage provides cloud-native backup supportย for major public cloud providers.
Do you want to know how we can help maximize the backup experience for block storage volumes? Get in touch with us or visit our backup and disaster recovery solution page.