Block vs File Storage Overview
Key Points
- Block storage splits data into independent blocks that can be moved across disks or cloud clusters for efficiency, while file storage presents data as hierarchical files and directories.
- In cloud environments, block devices can be attached to virtual servers either directly via a mount point (e.g., using Linux or Windows) or through the hypervisor layer, making them behave like physical disks.
- Block storage volumes can be unmounted from one virtual server and re‑mounted on another, providing flexibility for OS, application data, and backups.
- File storage, by contrast, is accessed over network protocols (such as NFS or SMB) and is optimized for sharing files among multiple clients rather than low‑level block manipulation.
- Choosing between block and file storage depends on the workload: block storage suits databases and performance‑critical applications, while file storage is ideal for collaborative file sharing and hierarchical data organization.
Full Transcript
# Block vs File Storage Overview **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmxWTTpXNLI](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmxWTTpXNLI) **Duration:** 00:10:52 ## Summary - Block storage splits data into independent blocks that can be moved across disks or cloud clusters for efficiency, while file storage presents data as hierarchical files and directories. - In cloud environments, block devices can be attached to virtual servers either directly via a mount point (e.g., using Linux or Windows) or through the hypervisor layer, making them behave like physical disks. - Block storage volumes can be unmounted from one virtual server and re‑mounted on another, providing flexibility for OS, application data, and backups. - File storage, by contrast, is accessed over network protocols (such as NFS or SMB) and is optimized for sharing files among multiple clients rather than low‑level block manipulation. - Choosing between block and file storage depends on the workload: block storage suits databases and performance‑critical applications, while file storage is ideal for collaborative file sharing and hierarchical data organization. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmxWTTpXNLI&t=0s) **Block Storage vs File Storage** - IBM’s Bradley Knapp outlines the fundamental differences between block and file storage, explaining how block storage breaks files into movable independent blocks for efficiency, while file storage uses a different presentation and use‑case model. ## Full Transcript
hi there and thanks so much for joining
us today my name is bradley knapp and
i'm with ibm and the question that we're
answering today is what is block storage
versus file storage
so this is a pretty intro intro and
basic level question i'm glad you guys
came to learn the difference because
when you're talking about cloud
computing these are far and away the two
most commonly used kinds of storage and
so to start off we're going to get our
block over here
and then we're going to put our file
over here
and let's talk about the difference
between these two because this
difference is really important there are
two different kinds of storage the way
that they present is different the
underlying technology is is different
but most importantly they have specific
uses that make them very very distinct
so let's start over here with block
let's get into that one first so if we
think about block storage on the
underlying layer if we think about the
physical devices that the data is stored
on when you write
out to a block volume you're going to
write a file out that file is going to
get broken up into lots of independent
parts and each of those independent
parts is going to go onto that storage
device now what makes block really
useful as a storage media
is each of these different parts can be
moved around for efficiency's sake so
you can move them around on a single
disk you can move them around on a raise
of disk or in the case of cloud storage
where we have entire clusters of
physical hardware you can move these
things around to wherever they need to
be that's the block part now
when it comes time to mount
this block device to your virtual
machine that's where things get really
interesting right so over here i've got
my vsi my virtual server and to my vsi i
want to attach storage right i have to
have something to run my operating
system off of i have to have storage to
store the data that is being processed i
have to have
storage in order to store my backups and
so a blocked device can actually be
mounted to this virtual server in two
different ways
the first is it can be mounted directly
via a mount point m and t
so via mount point so when you order a
block device you're gonna get a little
mount point that goes along with it it
can be mounted to your virtual server
using windows or linux whatever your
preference is you just put in the
address that proper security information
and you can mount it and then you can
start using it have to apply file system
obviously but
away you go
in addition to that during the
provisioning process so when this
virtual server is being provisioned we
can have a block device that gets
mounted up here into the hypervisor
layer
and it acts looks and feels just like it
was a physical
disk that's mounted into the machine now
big difference here if you're talking
about a block device that is mounted
directly to the virtual server you can
unmount it and mount it to another
virtual server over here so let's say
that all right i've written a bunch of
data out to it and i don't want it
attached to that one anymore i'm going
to spin up a second vsi i'm going to put
an x over that bad boy and i'm now going
to mount it to my new virtual server let
that new virtual server work on all of
the data that's in there let me give you
another use case for it let's imagine
that i have a virtual server that is
doing a bunch of processing information
and it's writing that out so let's put
that bad boy over here
vsi
and i have a block device
that is mounted to it
and so my virtual server here it's doing
lots of processing right it's preparing
data sets data analytics maybe
but
it is only doing all of the processing
it's not actually serving that data out
to anybody else let's say that i have
four more vsis
that are over here
that those are the ones that are going
to serve this data out and so what they
can do is each of them
can mount
this block device but mount it read only
and so when you've mounted this thing
read only you don't have to worry about
data corruption or anything like that
because all they can do is read from it
but they can get access to it in real
time and so they can bring down the
latest information
so block device probably the most
commonly used storage in cloud now let's
talk for a minute about file
file storage um is the other most
commonly used storage and the big
difference between file and block so
remember i said block whenever we write
out we write out in all these little
bits right there's some metadata that
goes along with them but not just a ton
mainly it's the job of the operating
system in that virtual server to provide
you all of the other information
file stores on the other hand or a file
share
maintains the directory hierarchy in the
same way that you think about it in
displayed at the operating system layer
so if i have an a file share here inside
that file share i'm going to have
folders
and inside those folders i'm going to
have files
just like if i was looking at
any other kind of a storage device on a
local machine but it is native to this
actual storage media itself the media
maintains
this logical hierarchy and maintains the
metadata that goes along with that
hierarchy so
whenever i mount an nfs share i can do
interesting things like collaboration
remember over here in order to maintain
file integrity we had to lock the entire
volume and make it read only well file
is not quite that inflexible file you
have the ability because you have all of
the metadata in it and you're
maintaining that hierarchy you can lock
individual files within a file share so
over here
in that example so now let's get our vsi
and we are going to mount
a file share and we're going to call
this one mntf
for file
now let's imagine that i have a bunch of
laptops right so my
my users
have a network share in the office that
they use and so i've got no i don't know
two different laptops right
and each of these laptops is accessing
files that are stored on this central
directory
so laptop one can go out and access it
read it make changes whatever it's
locked only while it's being written to
laptop two can do the same thing
you know it's locked only while it's
being written too now you always run
into the issue of potential data
integrity errors in that you'll get out
of sync right so what what one machine
is seeing may not be synced up with what
another machine is thinking but you
probably won't corrupt and kill the file
the way you would have five or ten years
ago
now another place that file storage is
kind of nifty
is it can be performance adjusted to be
pretty fast and so if you're talking
about storing a structured backup file
so rather than just a single backup file
that has the integrity within it maybe
you've got a bunch of backup files that
you know that you need to maintain in a
specific series of folders in order for
your rewrite to happen correctly or your
restore to happen correctly that is
going to be better stored in file
storage than it is in block storage
because again with file you're just
going to take you're going to mount it
to your virtual server and then your
backup software can pick up that logical
hierarchy and start your restoration
so
file storage block storage both are
mounted at the operating machine level
at the virtual server level at the os
level uh the big difference there is
remember block can also be mounted up at
the hypervisor level file storage cannot
you cannot boot from a file share
right file is purely for storing whereas
block is both bootable
and used for file storage itself so
that's the big difference between the
two let's talk about practical
applications block storage you can boot
from it right your operating system can
run on it a database you're always going
to want to put a traditional database
and a relational database
into block storage you do not want to
store that on file storage you're going
to have all kinds of issues and you try
and do that because the inherent
chunking ability of that block storage
is going to make it
much easier to tweak and get higher
performance out of so these block
volumes obviously you can adjust the
performance every cloud provider is
going to give you the ability to have
low performing medium performing high
performing ultra high performing
but they're going to adjust your ability
to do
to have as much performance as you need
file storage again same idea you can
adjust the amount of performance that
you need but you can't dial the knobs
quite as neatly as you can on the block
side so again block you're going to put
your databases on there operating system
boot images
um
data that is right once read many times
it's going to go great there file file
is great for
mounting to many devices right 16 32 50
or 100 devices at once
it maintains that hierarchy so it's
really useful for traditional shares and
when it comes to access control
you know it can inherit user directory
permissions and things like that so that
certain users are only authorized to see
certain folders within the within the
construct
other places that you might use file um
oh let's see you could use file storage
for documents you can use it for videos
you can use it for collaboration
uh let's imagine cad files all right so
computer aided design files you're an
architect or you're
some sort of a machine designer you're
an engineer you're working on these big
huge cad documents you're going to want
to store those cad files into a file
share that way you can share that out
because you again just like our example
down here you've got many users that
need to access it and make changes and
most cad software is pretty clever now
and so you don't have to worry about
running into data conflicts as you're
doing that so that's an overview of
block versus file it's why you would use
one versus the other they're both
incredibly important in the world of
cloud and hopefully you found it helpful
thank you so much for your time today if
you have any questions please drop us a
line below if you want to see more
videos like this in the future please do
like and subscribe and let us know
you