Object Storage

Object storage stores data as discrete objects — a file plus metadata plus a unique identifier — inside a flat namespace, instead of arranging it in directories on a filesystem. Objects are accessed over HTTP APIs, scale to effectively unlimited counts, and are replicated across multiple devices or facilities by the platform.

It is the natural home for backups, media files, data lake content, and static website assets. The typical trade-off ladder is hot storage (immediate access, higher price), infrequent-access tiers (cheaper per gigabyte, retrieval fees), and archive tiers (very cheap, restore times measured in minutes to hours).

Two cost lines decide the real price of object storage: retrieval fees on the colder tiers, and egress charges for data leaving the provider. Lifecycle policies that tier objects automatically are worth configuring on day one — manually moving data between tiers rarely happens once a system is in production.