Block storage

Block storage is popular in enterprise IT environments because of its flexibility

What Is Block Storage?

Block storage is a storage scheme in which each volume acts as a separate hard drive, configured by the storage administrator. Data is stored in fixed-size blocks. A unique address serves as the metadata describing each block.

Block storage benefits:

  • Performance - ideal for applications that require a high number of IOPS and low latency, such as database servers.
  • Flexibility - as storage needs grow, organizations can add block storage volumes without sacrificing performance. Block storage can be moved between servers by changing the destination route.
  • Ease of file modification - when a user changes a file in block storage, the system only needs to change the specific block affected by the changes. By contrast, in file or object storage, the file or the entire object must be overwritten.
  • Operating system bootability - operating systems can be booted directly from block storage using a SAN (assuming the server BIOS supports this option).

Block storage use cases:

  • Databases: Fast, reliable performance along with easy database storage management make block storage the go-to technology.
  • Enterprise applications: Like databases, block storage helps ensure that many large and transaction-based business applications don’t keep their users waiting.
  • Virtualization: VMware customers can use block storage for their virtual machine file systems.
  • Email servers: Running Exchange? Microsoft’s email server explicitly requires block-level storage and doesn’t support NAS file storage systems.
  • RAID: Block storage enables organizations to configure individual disks into a RAID array for data redundancy and improved performance.

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