8️⃣ Storage - Overview¶

Learn how data is stored on Google Cloud Platform.

📋 Table of Contents¶

Introduction
Storage Types
Storage Services Comparison
Decision Framework
Architecture Patterns
Cost Comparison
Quick Reference

Introduction¶

GCP offers multiple storage options for different use cases, from object storage to block storage and file systems.

Storage Spectrum¶

Object Storage          Block Storage         File Storage
     |                       |                      |
     v                       v                      v
┌─────────────┐      ┌─────────────┐      ┌─────────────┐
│   Cloud     │      │ Persistent  │      │  Filestore  │
│   Storage   │      │    Disk     │      │   (NFS)     │
│  (Buckets)  │      │  (Volumes)  │      │             │
└─────────────┘      └─────────────┘      └─────────────┘

Storage Types¶

1. Object Storage¶

Cloud Storage - Scalable object storage

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│        Cloud Storage Bucket         │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  Objects (files)                    │
│  - images/photo.jpg                 │
│  - videos/movie.mp4                 │
│  - backups/db-backup.sql            │
│  - logs/app-2026-03-05.log          │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Characteristics: - Unlimited storage capacity - HTTP/HTTPS access - Global accessibility - Versioning support - Lifecycle management - Multiple storage classes

Use Cases: - Static website hosting - Media storage and delivery - Backup and archival - Data lakes - Application assets

2. Block Storage¶

Persistent Disk - Block storage for VMs

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│      Compute Engine Instance        │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ┌──────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  Boot Disk (pd-standard)     │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────┘   │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  Data Disk (pd-ssd)          │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────┘   │
│  ┌──────────────────────────────┐   │
│  │  Local SSD (temporary)       │   │
│  └──────────────────────────────┘   │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘

Characteristics: - Attached to VM instances - Block-level access - Persistent or ephemeral - Snapshots support - Multiple disk types - Up to 64 TB per disk

Use Cases: - VM boot disks - Database storage - Application data - High-performance workloads

3. File Storage¶

Filestore - Managed NFS file storage

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│         Filestore Instance          │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  NFS Share: /vol1                   │
│  - Mounted on multiple VMs          │
│  - Shared file access               │
│  - POSIX compliant                  │
└─────────────────────────────────────┘
         |           |           |
         v           v           v
    ┌──────┐    ┌──────┐    ┌──────┐
    │ VM 1 │    │ VM 2 │    │ VM 3 │
    └──────┘    └──────┘    └──────┘

Characteristics: - NFS protocol - Shared file system - POSIX compliant - High performance - Multiple tiers - Automatic backups

Use Cases: - Shared application data - Content management - Media rendering - Home directories - Legacy applications

Storage Services Comparison¶

Feature Matrix¶

Feature	Cloud Storage	Persistent Disk	Filestore
Type	Object	Block	File (NFS)
Access	HTTP/API	Block device	NFS mount
Capacity	Unlimited	64 TB/disk	100 TB/instance
Sharing	Public/Private	Single VM	Multiple VMs
Performance	Variable	High	Very High
Durability	99.999999999%	99.9999%	99.99%
Pricing	Per GB stored	Per GB provisioned	Per GB provisioned
Use Case	Unstructured data	VM storage	Shared files

Performance Comparison¶

Storage Type	Throughput	IOPS	Latency
Cloud Storage	5 Gbps/bucket	N/A	10-100ms
pd-standard	240 MB/s	7,500	5-10ms
pd-balanced	480 MB/s	15,000	1-5ms
pd-ssd	960 MB/s	100,000	<1ms
pd-extreme	4,800 MB/s	160,000	<1ms
Local SSD	9,600 MB/s	680,000	<1ms
Filestore Basic	180 MB/s	60,000	<1ms
Filestore High Scale	1,200 MB/s	100,000	<1ms

Decision Framework¶

Decision Tree¶

What type of data?
    |
    ├─> Unstructured (files, media, backups)
    |   └─> Cloud Storage
    |
    ├─> Structured (database, application)
    |   ├─> Single VM access?
    |   │   └─> Persistent Disk
    |   └─> Multiple VM access?
    |       └─> Filestore
    |
    └─> Temporary/Cache
        └─> Local SSD

Use Case Matrix¶

Requirement	Recommended	Alternative
Static website	Cloud Storage	Cloud CDN + Storage
VM boot disk	Persistent Disk	-
Database storage	Persistent Disk (SSD)	Local SSD
Shared files	Filestore	Cloud Storage
Backup/Archive	Cloud Storage	-
Media streaming	Cloud Storage + CDN	-
Big data	Cloud Storage	-
Container storage	Persistent Disk	Filestore
High IOPS	Local SSD	pd-extreme
Multi-region	Cloud Storage	-

Architecture Patterns¶

Pattern 1: Web Application with Media¶

Internet
    |
    v
┌─────────────────────┐
│  Cloud Load         │
│  Balancer           │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           |
    ┌──────┴──────┐
    v             v
┌────────┐   ┌────────┐
│ VM 1   │   │ VM 2   │
│ + PD   │   │ + PD   │
└────┬───┘   └───┬────┘
     |           |
     └─────┬─────┘
           v
    ┌──────────────┐
    │  Cloud SQL   │
    │  + PD        │
    └──────────────┘

Static Assets:
┌──────────────┐      ┌──────────────┐
│  Cloud       │─────>│  Cloud CDN   │
│  Storage     │      └──────────────┘
└──────────────┘

Pattern 2: Shared File System¶

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│         Filestore Instance          │
│         /shared-data                │
└──────────────┬──────────────────────┘
               |
    ┌──────────┼──────────┐
    v          v          v
┌──────┐   ┌──────┐   ┌──────┐
│ VM 1 │   │ VM 2 │   │ VM 3 │
│ App  │   │ App  │   │ App  │
└──────┘   └──────┘   └──────┘

Pattern 3: Data Lake Architecture¶

Data Sources
    |
    v
┌─────────────────────┐
│  Cloud Storage      │
│  (Data Lake)        │
├─────────────────────┤
│  /raw/              │
│  /processed/        │
│  /curated/          │
└──────────┬──────────┘
           |
    ┌──────┴──────┐
    v             v
┌──────────┐  ┌──────────┐
│ BigQuery │  │ Dataflow │
└──────────┘  └──────────┘

Pattern 4: Backup and DR¶

Production
┌──────────────┐
│  Compute     │
│  + PD        │
└──────┬───────┘
       |
       v (Snapshots)
┌──────────────┐
│  Snapshots   │
│  (Regional)  │
└──────┬───────┘
       |
       v (Export)
┌──────────────┐
│  Cloud       │
│  Storage     │
│  (Archive)   │
└──────────────┘

Pattern 5: High Performance Computing¶

┌─────────────────────────────────────┐
│      Compute Engine Instances       │
├─────────────────────────────────────┤
│  ┌──────┐  ┌──────┐  ┌──────┐      │
│  │ VM 1 │  │ VM 2 │  │ VM 3 │      │
│  │+SSD  │  │+SSD  │  │+SSD  │      │
│  └──┬───┘  └──┬───┘  └──┬───┘      │
└─────┼─────────┼─────────┼───────────┘
      |         |         |
      └─────────┼─────────┘
                v
        ┌──────────────┐
        │  Filestore   │
        │  High Scale  │
        └──────────────┘

Cost Comparison¶

Monthly Cost Examples (us-central1)¶

Scenario 1: 1 TB Storage

Service	Configuration	Monthly Cost
Cloud Storage	Standard class	$20
Cloud Storage	Nearline class	$10
Cloud Storage	Coldline class	$4
Cloud Storage	Archive class	$1.20
Persistent Disk	pd-standard	$40
Persistent Disk	pd-balanced	$100
Persistent Disk	pd-ssd	$170
Filestore	Basic HDD	$200
Filestore	Basic SSD	$300

Scenario 2: Database Storage (500 GB, High IOPS)

Service	Configuration	Monthly Cost
pd-ssd	500 GB	$85
pd-extreme	500 GB + IOPS	$125+
Local SSD	375 GB × 2	$160

Scenario 3: Shared File System (2 TB)

Service	Configuration	Monthly Cost
Filestore Basic	2 TB HDD	$400
Filestore High Scale	2 TB SSD	$1,200
Cloud Storage	2 TB (not NFS)	$40

Cost Optimization Strategies¶

Cloud Storage: - Use appropriate storage class - Enable lifecycle management - Use Coldline/Archive for infrequent access - Enable compression - Use requester pays for public data

Persistent Disk: - Right-size disk capacity - Use pd-balanced instead of pd-ssd when possible - Delete unused disks - Use snapshots for backups (cheaper) - Use committed use discounts

Filestore: - Choose appropriate tier - Right-size capacity - Use Basic tier when possible - Schedule backups efficiently - Delete unused instances

Quick Reference¶

Cloud Storage¶

# Create bucket
gsutil mb -l us-central1 gs://my-bucket

# Upload file
gsutil cp file.txt gs://my-bucket/

# Download file
gsutil cp gs://my-bucket/file.txt .

# List objects
gsutil ls gs://my-bucket/

# Set lifecycle policy
gsutil lifecycle set lifecycle.json gs://my-bucket/

Persistent Disk¶

# Create disk
gcloud compute disks create my-disk \
  --size=100GB \
  --type=pd-ssd \
  --zone=us-central1-a

# Attach to VM
gcloud compute instances attach-disk my-vm \
  --disk=my-disk \
  --zone=us-central1-a

# Create snapshot
gcloud compute disks snapshot my-disk \
  --snapshot-names=my-snapshot \
  --zone=us-central1-a

Filestore¶

# Create instance
gcloud filestore instances create my-filestore \
  --zone=us-central1-a \
  --tier=BASIC_HDD \
  --file-share=name=vol1,capacity=1TB \
  --network=name=default

# Mount on VM
sudo mount -t nfs FILESTORE_IP:/vol1 /mnt/filestore

Storage Limits¶

Cloud Storage¶

Resource	Limit
Bucket name length	3-63 characters
Object size	5 TB
Buckets per project	10,000 (soft)
Objects per bucket	Unlimited
Upload bandwidth	5 Gbps

Persistent Disk¶

Resource	Limit
Disk size	64 TB
Disks per VM	128
Total disk capacity per VM	257 TB
Snapshots per disk	Unlimited
Local SSD per VM	9 TB (24 × 375 GB)

Filestore¶

Resource	Limit
Instance capacity	1 TB - 100 TB
Instances per project	10 (soft)
Shares per instance	1
Throughput (Basic)	180 MB/s
Throughput (High Scale)	1,200 MB/s

Best Practices¶

General¶

✅ Choose the right storage type for your use case
✅ Use appropriate storage class/tier
✅ Implement lifecycle management
✅ Enable versioning for critical data
✅ Regular backups and snapshots
✅ Monitor storage usage and costs
✅ Use encryption at rest
✅ Implement access controls
✅ Tag resources for cost tracking
✅ Test disaster recovery procedures

Performance¶

✅ Use SSD for high IOPS workloads
✅ Use Local SSD for temporary high-performance needs
✅ Use Cloud CDN with Cloud Storage
✅ Implement caching strategies
✅ Use parallel uploads/downloads
✅ Optimize object sizes
✅ Use regional storage for better performance
✅ Monitor and optimize IOPS

Security¶

✅ Use IAM for access control
✅ Enable encryption at rest
✅ Use customer-managed encryption keys (CMEK)
✅ Implement bucket policies
✅ Use signed URLs for temporary access
✅ Enable audit logging
✅ Use VPC Service Controls
✅ Regular security audits

Cost Optimization¶

✅ Use lifecycle policies
✅ Delete unused resources
✅ Use appropriate storage classes
✅ Use committed use discounts
✅ Monitor and optimize costs
✅ Use compression
✅ Right-size storage capacity
✅ Use snapshots instead of full copies

Next Steps¶

Cloud Storage - Object storage service
Persistent Disk - Block storage for VMs
Filestore - Managed NFS file storage
Storage Comparison - Detailed comparison
Best Practices - Production guidelines

Additional Resources¶

Last Updated: March 2026
Status: ✅ Complete