Overview
- Object storage
- Not suitable for file-based storage applications
- Infinitely scalable
- Highly durable (99.9999999%—eleven 9s)
- Unstructured data—images, videos etc.
- Data stored in buckets
- Regional, dual-regional or multi-regional
- Instant redundancy within a single region
- Asynchronous redundancy between dual or multi-regions
- Use to optimize latency and bandwidth considerations for users
- Folder structure
- Object versioning—mutable files
- Permissions: bucket or object level
- Lifecycle management
- Rules to move objects between storage classes, or delete
- Signed URLs—grant temporary access to specific objects
- Programmatically sign strings within application
- Or use App Engine App Identity service to sign from within App Engine
- Retention policies, policy locks, object holds—useful for regulated data
- gsutil tool
Storage Classes
| Class | Minimum Storage Period | Pricing |
|---|
| Standard | None | Based on storage |
| Nearline | 30 days | Based on storage and retrieval |
| Coldline | 90 days | Based on storage and retrieval |
| Archive | 365 days | Based on storage and retrieval |
Storage Transfer Service
- Transfer large amounts of data to Cloud storage — online data
- AWS S3, HTTP(S) sources, other Cloud Storage buckets, on-prem (agent-based)
References