What is Block Storage?

Looking for the perfect storage solution? Our Storage Series focuses on Block Storage, Object Storage, and the ideal use cases for each. This article will explore the differences between Block Storage and local storage to help you find the storage solution that is right for your business.

Do you know which storage option is right for your business? Local storage, block storage and object storage all offer great features depending on the amount and type of storage you need. Before you make your choice, we’ll explore block storage more in depth and learn about it’s basic architecture and how it functions.

Block storage operates very similarly to the standard local storage you’re already familiar with, however there is one notable difference. While local storage keeps all data locally on your server, block storage separates that data out into a high-speed, centralized storage cluster with built-in redundancy. All communication with block storage occurs over a network. Separating your storage from your server allows you to cost-effectively and efficiently scale up your storage – especially for large amounts of data.

Files stored in a block storage system are split and organized into evenly sized blocks of raw data; each individual block contains data and an associated address. Updates to files, databases, etc. occur via individual block updates, and not the update of the entire file. Thus, block storage excels at heavy random read/write I/O, and database storage.

The centralized block storage cluster can be conveniently scaled up or down with the simple click of a button in the Cloud interface, however Liquid Web’s Block Storage has a hard limit of 15 TB per volume.

Built on a distributed platform, our Block Storage adds a level of redundancy and high availability to your data storage or server clusters. Managed by Liquid Web, block storage is ideal for many different types of applications and storage needs and provides businesses with the ability to allocate storage on a per-gig-basis.

If you’d like to learn more about other storage solutions at Liquid Web or to find out which solution would be ideal for you, stay tuned for upcoming articles on storage solutions, or contact our Support staff.