File and Object Storage Features – File, Object, and Data Lake Storage
File and Object Storage Features
File storage organizes and stores data as flat files in folders under a hierarchy of directories and subdirectories. Data is stored on a local hard drive or a network-attached storage (NAS) device. Shared folders that use a NAS device allow multiple users to share data with each other. While file storage is a good storage solution for small amounts of organized files, it is not ideal for large volumes of files that contain different types of data. Hierarchical folder structures can become bottlenecks when working with large files or unstructured data. Object storage can overcome many of these limitations.
Object storage is used to store large volumes of data in binary and text format. Data stored in object storage can be structured, semi-structured, or unstructured. These data stores are like shared folders on a local network except that they bundle data with custom metadata. APIs can use an object’s metadata to retrieve its contents. Cloud-based object data stores are highly scalable, allowing organizations to store exabytes worth of files. Furthermore, these systems are designed to be highly redundant to protect against hardware failures.
Object data stores are useful in the following scenarios:
- Storing images, videos, and audio that are analyzed by deep learning models or served to a website
- Storing raw and processed data in file formats such as Parquet, ORC, or Avro that are optimized for distributed computing solutions
- Serving as the backend storage layer for modern data warehouse scenarios that separate compute and storage with a scale-out architecture
- Capturing IoT data for long-term storage and analysis
- Storing data backups for high availability
- Archiving data for regulatory compliance
Azure offers options for both file and object storage with the Azure Storage platform of services. Let’s examine the Azure Storage platform and the core storage options it offers in the following sections.