Block Storage: how it works and how it differs from alternative approaches

Block Storage — technology for managing data storage devices. This way of organizing information takes any data, such as a file or database record, and divides it into blocks of the same size. A block storage system stores a block of data in the underlying physical storage in a way that is optimized for fast access and retrieval. Developers prefer block storage, which requires efficient, fast and reliable access to data.

It is predicted that by 2030 the block storage market will reach $65.4 billion and will grow by almost 100% in eight years. Annual cumulative growth will be 29%, driven by growing interest in this type of storage due to its efficiency and high speed of information access, which is critical for applications that require instant feedback.

Overview of the global block storage market

Block storage: advantages

Strengths include:

1. Ease of data modification, when you can change only those blocks that are subject to change, without compromising performance;
2. Block storage is characterized by high performance, as it has high values ​​of IOPS - the number of input-output operations per second. This allows quick access for reading, editing and other operations;
3. Scalability. If necessary, increase the amount of available disk space. You can easily expand the space for your needs;
4. Ease of use and flexibility – block data can be used simultaneously from different environments and on different servers;
5. Controllability - you can group blocks to increase performance and use different types of disks for data storage;
6. Fault tolerance. Data is replicated across multiple nodes to ensure availability even in the event of problems;
7. Backup. Our Block Storage is designed for data durability and 99.99% availability. Each block storage disk is stored and replicated in a highly available cluster. Create backups or snapshots in minutes.

Block storage: disadvantages

Weaknesses include:

1. Limited metadata capabilities, which may require processing additional information at the application or database level.
2. Management complexity, which may require additional effort and complexity in setup and management.
3. The relatively high cost is associated with the need to use expensive equipment.

Analysis of different data storage methods

Block storage, file storage, and object storage provide different approaches to data management and are suitable for different usage scenarios. Their differences lie in the way of organization and access to information.

Block storage provides lower-level access to data, making it effective for high-load systems with critical access latency requirements.

File storage is a way of storing data in the form of standard files and folders. This approach is cheaper and somewhat more convenient than partitioning data into blocks, because the hierarchy of files and folders is logical and clear, especially when processing large amounts of data. However, when the number of files and folders increases, file stores face search speed limitations, which makes them not very efficient for applications that require fast access to data.

Object stores, unlike file stores, do not support a hierarchical data structure and store information in an unstructured form. Each object in the object store is assigned a unique identifier address, and objects can contain a large amount of different metadata describing their content. This type of storage is easily scalable and is often used by online services such as Facebook and Dropbox.
 

• File data is organized as a file structure and accessed through the file system of the operating system;
• Object data is represented by objects with unique identifiers and accessed via a RESTful API.

Comparison of data storage systems

Who is Block Storage suitable for?

Block storage systems are best for global data centers, especially for enterprise customers. They provide efficient and reliable information storage, which is critical for database servers and critical applications. Provides fast access to data and increased fault tolerance. Such systems are used to store transactional data and virtual machines, as well as system snapshots and images.

Block storage systems (as the data storage system is also called) are often used to create private clouds. Such storage is ideal for this purpose due to its fault-tolerant architecture that does not require data redundancy and replication. Unlike Software-Defined Storage (SDS) solutions, block SDS can be easily and quickly scaled without affecting the configuration of computing nodes. Through the use of a SAN (Network Attached Storage) network, such storage can be provided to all nodes of a computing cluster, which provides resilience to the failure of virtual machines without the need for long data migration between virtualization nodes.

Block Storage and SAN

Network Attached Storage is a popular architectural solution in which external storage devices such as disk arrays, optical drives, and tape libraries are connected directly to the server. The operating system sees them as local resources, and thanks to this, the SAN provides access to individual blocks of data through Fiber Channel or iSCSI protocols. The use of SAN provides increased storage reliability and fast access to data, and block storage plays a key role in solving these tasks, as it allows interaction with individual blocks of information, bypassing the operating and file systems.

A SAN network allows the use of several SDRs at the same time, which can be beneficial from a financial point of view. Slow and cheap storage can be used for archives and backups, while more expensive and high-performance storage is used to handle high workloads. As such, block storage fits perfectly with the IaaS model, enabling cloud providers to provide flexible, high-performance, and manageable storage for their customers.

Hence
 

Block storage is becoming increasingly popular due to its efficiency and ability to handle large amounts of information at high access rates, making it a better choice for latency-critical applications and driving significant growth in the data storage market.

Connect block storage to virtual machines so you can scale storage independent of compute, it's flexible and reliable storage for resource-intensive workloads. If you need advice on the use of fast and reliable block data storage, OneCloudPlanet offers the help of specialists with the necessary IT expertise and experience in implementing client projects of any complexity.

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