Object, block or file storage? Choosing the right kind for each workload

"Storage" covers three quite different models. Each is good at different things, and using the wrong one is a common source of slow applications and high bills.

Block storage

Block storage presents a raw disk to a server, which formats it with a file system. It is what a database or an operating system runs on.

• Strengths: low latency, high input/output performance, works with any software.
• Limits: normally attached to one server at a time; capacity is provisioned in advance.
• Use for: databases, virtual machine disks, applications that need fast local storage.

File storage

File storage shares folders over a network, using protocols such as NFS and SMB. Many users or servers see the same files.

• Strengths: familiar folders and permissions, shared access, works with existing applications.
• Limits: harder to scale to billions of files; performance depends on the network and the file server.
• Use for: team folders, shared application data, home directories, content that several servers must read.

Object storage

Object storage keeps data as objects in buckets, each with a unique key and metadata, accessed over HTTP through an API, most commonly the S3 API.

• Strengths: scales to enormous amounts of data, pay for what you store, accessible from anywhere, built-in features such as versioning and lifecycle rules.
• Limits: not a disk; you cannot run a database on it, and editing part of a file means rewriting the object.
• Use for: images and video, backups and archives, logs, static website assets, data lakes.

A typical modern application uses all three

The database runs on block storage, a small amount of shared configuration sits on file storage, and user uploads, media and backups go to object storage. Putting media in object storage instead of on the server's disk also makes servers easier to replace and scale.

How IDX helps

IDX VPS and dedicated servers use fast SSD and NVMe disks for block storage. IDX Object Storage provides S3-compatible buckets, priced per GB with unlimited requests. For backup and archive space reachable over FTP, SFTP, SMB or WebDAV, IDX Box Storage adds sub-accounts and snapshots.