Cloud Storage: Storing Data in the Cloud

Learning Objectives Differentiate between the three primary cloud storage types: Object, Block, and File storage. Define and explain the significance of key storage metrics, including durability, availability, and latency. Analyze an application's requirements to select the most appropriate and cost-effective cloud storage solution. Explain the CAP Theorem and its implications for distributed storage systems. Calculate estimated monthly costs for a given cloud storage scenario, considering storage volume, data transfer, and operations. Describe the basic structure of an API request for interacting with cloud storage. Ever wondered how services like Netflix or Spotify can store petabytes of data and stream it to millions of users simultaneously without a single massive h...

TermDefinitionExample Object StorageA data storage architecture that manages data as objects, as opposed to a file hierarchy or blocks. Each object typically includes the data itself, a variable amount of metadata, and a globally unique identifier (key).Amazon S3 or Google Cloud Storage. When you upload a photo to a social media site, it's stored as an object. The photo is the data, the metadata might include the date, location, and camera type, and it's retrieved using a unique URL (its key). Block StorageA technology used to store data files on Storage Area Networks (SANs) or cloud-based storage environments. It breaks data into fixed-size blocks, each with its own unique address, but with no additional metadata. It behaves like a raw hard drive for a server.Amazon EBS (Elasti...

The CAP Theorem A distributed data store can only provide two of the following three guarantees: Consistency, Availability, and Partition Tolerance (CAP). Since network partitions (failures) are a given in distributed systems, cloud storage systems must choose between Consistency (every read receives the most recent write or an error) and Availability (every request receives a non-error response, without guarantee that it's the most recent write). This is a fundamental trade-off in system design. For example, a system might choose to be 'Eventually Consistent' to maximize availability. Storage Tiering Pattern Data is categorized and moved between high-cost, high-performance storage and low-cost, low-performance storage tiers based on its access frequency and per...