Choosing Between Block and File Storage
Key Points
- Block storage writes raw data blocks accessed via a storage area network, offering the lowest latency and high performance for demanding applications.
- It typically includes built‑in redundancy, so if a volume or disk fails the data can be recovered without impacting the application.
- File storage provides network‑attached, highly scalable file shares that multiple servers can read from and write to simultaneously without overwriting data.
- Choose block storage for use cases like VM boot volumes or transactional/relational databases that need ultra‑low latency and high I/O performance.
- Opt for file storage when handling a mix of structured and unstructured data (e.g., web hosting) or when multiple users need concurrent collaborative access to shared files.
Full Transcript
# Choosing Between Block and File Storage **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EqAXnNm0FE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EqAXnNm0FE) **Duration:** 00:04:04 ## Summary - Block storage writes raw data blocks accessed via a storage area network, offering the lowest latency and high performance for demanding applications. - It typically includes built‑in redundancy, so if a volume or disk fails the data can be recovered without impacting the application. - File storage provides network‑attached, highly scalable file shares that multiple servers can read from and write to simultaneously without overwriting data. - Choose block storage for use cases like VM boot volumes or transactional/relational databases that need ultra‑low latency and high I/O performance. - Opt for file storage when handling a mix of structured and unstructured data (e.g., web hosting) or when multiple users need concurrent collaborative access to shared files. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EqAXnNm0FE&t=0s) **Block vs File Storage Overview** - Amy Blea outlines the fundamentals, advantages, and decision‑making guidance for using block storage versus file storage on IBM Cloud. ## Full Transcript
hey guys my name is Amy Blea on the offering team here with IBM cloud and
today I want to talk to you about some traditional types of storage file and
block storage kind of give you an overview of what they are and then give
you some tips on how to decide when to use one over the other so let's get
started with block storage block storage is storage where data is written and raw
blocks on the storage and it's accessed by the servers that you have through a
storage area network so you have all of your servers they can either be on the
same network with each other and a different network but they all connect
through the storage through this storage area network now some of the advantages
of using block storage is that block storage provides the lowest possible
latency for your applications and you can also use it for those applications
that require high performance or lots of AI ops another thing you'll find with
block storage is that in general it is highly redundant most block storage
services provide a capability that's built-in where your data is redundant
across the volume so that if so there should be either a volume should go down
or a disk should go away and you can recover your data from another place
without having any kind of impact to your application now file storage is
connected to your service a little differently than block storages
everything is connected on the same network so you have all of your files or
your file share here those are all files and they can all be accessed on the same
network by any of the servers on that network so it's network attached storage
file storage is highly scalable so you can have a multiple file shares on your
network and have all of your servers attached to that at one time it's
accessible to multiple runtime so here in this illustration we have a single
file share that has multiple servers accessing it all at once and you can
also have multiple simultaneous reads and writes going to
your file share all at one time without having to worry about your data being
overwritten so how do you know when is the right time to choose either block
storage or file storage for your application
well first of all you need to think about what you're using it for so for
example let's say you have a VMware configuration where you have multiple
virtual servers with VMware on them and you need boot volumes well in that case
you would use block storage if you have workloads such as transactional
databases or relational databases that require very low latency and high
performance you would choose block storage in situations where you have a
mix of structured and unstructured data for example a web hosting server where
you have both you know text files as well as media files then you would
choose file storage and then if you have a collaborative space where you need to
have multiple users accessing it all at one time working together doing you know
reads and writes all at the same time you would choose a file storage so like
I mentioned in the beginning block and file storage are very traditional types
of storage they're not as flashy and sunshiny and exciting as some of the new
storage services that have entered the market but they are still very relevant
and useful for the different types of workloads that you have whether it's on
premise or in the cloud thanks for checking out this video and the
differences between file and block storage with me today and if you have
any questions or comments or ideas for other videos just put something in the
comments below and then if you'd like to see more videos like this in the future
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