Block Storage vs. File Storage
Vivian Chionuma
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Storing, securing, and accessing valuable data is extremely important in this digital era. Most everyone from large enterprises to individuals have confidential and highly secure data which is stored on some form of storage media. Individuals typically choose external hard disks or USB's to store their data, while organizations opt for dedicated services with some backup plan in place.
However, as data grows in volume it can become a bit tedious to maintain data integrity, security and continuity. In the off chance that disaster strikes, it is likely that all data will be lost leading to incomparable loss. Therefore, instead of waiting for a disaster to strike and then react, we can begin looking now at the best options available to store and secure data.
The two most popular storage system technologies are file level storage and block level storage.
- Block Level Storage
- File Level Storage
What is Block Storage?
Block storage is data storage typically used in storage-area network (SAN) environments where data is stored in volumes, also referred to as blocks. Each block is assigned an arbitrary identifier by which it can be stored and retrieved, but no metadata providing further context. Database storage is a common use for block storage.
Each block acts as an individual hard drive and is configured by the storage administrator. These blocks are controlled by the server-based operating system, and are generally accessed by Fibre Channel, iSCSI or Fibre Channel over Ethernet protocols.
Because the volumes are treated as individual hard disks, block storage works well for storing a variety of applications. File systems and databases are common uses for block storage because they require consistently high performance.
What is File Storage?
File storage, also called file-level or file-based storage, stores data in a hierarchical structure. The data is saved in files and folders, and presented to both the system storing it and the system retrieving it in the same format. Data can be accessed using the Network File System (NFS) protocol for Unix or Linux, or the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol for Microsoft Windows.