Home Digital Marketing Object Storage vs. Traditional File Systems: Which Is Better for Your Organization? 

Object Storage vs. Traditional File Systems: Which Is Better for Your Organization? 

The critical distinctions between object and traditional file storage are design and flexibility. Traditional file storage is structured in a rigid tree-like structure, including sub-directories, directories, etc. To view a saved file, you should first go to it. Meanwhile, object storage uses a fixed address space. Every reserved item has a distinct identity and extensive information, allowing it to be easily found among millions of other things. 

Moreover, traditional file storage and object storage have drastically different scaling capabilities due to structural variances. File storage’s structure and pathfinding start to a maximum at thousands of files, but object storage allows near-infinite scalability to petabytes and beyond. To know more, dig deeper into this article. 

What Is Object Storage? 

Can't Download From Google Drive
Cloud Storage Symbol

Object storage is a data storage technique that originated in the mid-1990s, as academics predicted that current storage technologies would soon expose their limits in specific circumstances. As the name implies, object storage handles data as separate entities, or things, supported by metadata and a globally distinct identity (UUID). This unstructured data is stored in a storage pool, which is a flattened network address. Because of its infinite expansion and speedier data extraction, object storage is also noted for its interoperability with cloud technology. 

What Are Traditional File Systems? 

Traditional file systems were an initial effort to computerize the traditional or manual storage method. A file system is a way of keeping and arranging computer records and the information recorded inside them so that they can be easily found and accessed. File systems can utilize a storage medium like a CD-ROM or hard drive to keep track of the actual location of the data. 

What Are the Key Differences Between Object Storage and Traditional File Storage? 

Besides these two storage types’ vastly different structures and scalability, they have also tended to differ in several other vital areas. These include:  

Duration 

Duration is the time required for data transmission to move across the system. In traditional file versus object storage, file storage comes out on top. As long as the equipment does have a way to the information, accessing it is quick and easy, particularly with today’s memory storage systems.  

Object storage, on the contrary, was designed with expense economy and versatility in mind, and those benefits have traditionally come at the expense of fastness and efficiency. 

Performance 

Output, or the amount of information transmitted or received in a given time, assesses a network’s efficiency. Although file storage helps you rapidly discover information via a pyramid model, the more folders, files, and documents you access, the slower your bandwidth gets. On the other hand, object storage is ideal for storing massive amounts of data. Although accessing your data may require a little longer, you won’t have to dig deeper manually since the system will do it for you. 

Cost 

Object storage excels in terms of cost. It was initially designed to store enormous volumes of data that do not require frequent access, including supplementary databases, archives, or raw video footage. Many in the know referred to historical object storage called deep and cheap storage because of its cost-effective pay-only-for-what-you-use strategy.  

Although file storage is inexpensive, it might increase expenditures when the capability is added. File storage cannot scale up; instead, it should expand out when new file storage systems are added. Adding whole new systems may be costly. 

Access Protocol 

The methods by which file and object storage solutions access data vary considerably. Conventional file storage often employs a network file system (NFS) or other standard internet protocol with low downtime. HTTP is used to access the information in object storage. This allows users to get data from various apps, including web browsers. Yet, since HTTP is text-based, it is handled more gradually than file storage methods, emphasizing once again that object storage provides easy access but lacks high speed. 

When Should Object Storage Be Used Instead of Traditional File Storage? 

Object storage is appropriate for open-source cloud storage due to long-held beliefs that it provides fantastic versatility and simple data accessibility. While it was not designed for speed, it has traditionally been best suited for huge data structures, particularly unstructured data.  

These are some instances where object based storage has excelled: 

  • After completing the processing of a movie project, a media production business keeps all the original video material in object storage for protection and future accessibility when required. 
  • Government requirements require a financial firm to preserve client financial documents for a certain period. Therefore, inactive client information is securely stored in object storage. 
  • A retail shop stores its server’s recovery and backup information in cloud-based object storage to ensure it remains accessible during a natural catastrophe or a regional interruption. 
  • A health research institution saves data gathered from across the globe in object storage in readiness for a large genomics study. 

When Should You Utilize File Storage Rather Than Object Storage? 

Traditional file storage helps store almost anything due to its broad capacities. As long as the network understands the route to the data, it is excellent for quick in-and-out accessibility. Although the speed of object storage has improved, file server has always been the dominant option for high-performance computation, machine learning, AI, and big data applications. 

Below are some instances when conventional file storage is an excellent choice: 

  • A legal firm’s office directories are stored in a similar resource repository file system. 
  • An advertising agency stores work documents in the cloud so that workers may work on them and upgrade them even if they are in various places. 
  • Since the system permits several servers to modify various files simultaneously, a manufacturing corporation employs file storage to execute its data analytics activities. 
  • A research group employs file storage to execute ML experiments requiring large amounts of data to be crunched quickly. 

Object Storage vs. File Storage: Which Is Better? 

Object storage solves numerous restrictions associated with file storage. Consider file storage to be a storehouse. There is plenty of room whenever you initially place a package of files in there. Nevertheless, you will quickly load the warehouses to the maximum as your data requirements rise. Meanwhile, object storage is similar to a warehouse but lacks a roof. You may incorporate data indefinitely – the sky is the limit. Regarding accessing individual or smaller files, file storage excels in speed, mainly when dealing with small volumes of data.