Object Storage: Core Components Explained
Key Points
- Object storage provides low‑cost, low‑performance storage optimized for internet workloads like web apps, content delivery, and long‑term archival that traditionally relied on tape.
- An “object” is any file that includes four essential parts: a unique identifier (ID), the data itself, metadata describing the file (e.g., creator, type, size), and attributes that control access and actions on the object.
- Metadata makes objects searchable and indexable, while attributes define permissions such as who can read, overwrite, download, or delete the object.
- Objects are organized in flat containers called buckets, where all unstructured data is placed for easy retrieval and management.
Sections
- Object Storage Basics and Use Cases - An overview of low‑cost object storage for web workloads and long‑term archiving, explaining what objects are and their essential components like unique IDs.
- Cold‑ish Object Storage Use Cases - The speaker outlines pricing tiers for cold object storage, introduces a “cold‑ish” tier for regularly accessed website assets, and highlights API‑driven benefits like global replication for video streaming.
Full Transcript
# Object Storage: Core Components Explained **Source:** [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfTOQJlLsAs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfTOQJlLsAs) **Duration:** 00:10:29 ## Summary - Object storage provides low‑cost, low‑performance storage optimized for internet workloads like web apps, content delivery, and long‑term archival that traditionally relied on tape. - An “object” is any file that includes four essential parts: a unique identifier (ID), the data itself, metadata describing the file (e.g., creator, type, size), and attributes that control access and actions on the object. - Metadata makes objects searchable and indexable, while attributes define permissions such as who can read, overwrite, download, or delete the object. - Objects are organized in flat containers called buckets, where all unstructured data is placed for easy retrieval and management. ## Sections - [00:00:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfTOQJlLsAs&t=0s) **Object Storage Basics and Use Cases** - An overview of low‑cost object storage for web workloads and long‑term archiving, explaining what objects are and their essential components like unique IDs. - [00:06:18](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfTOQJlLsAs&t=378s) **Cold‑ish Object Storage Use Cases** - The speaker outlines pricing tiers for cold object storage, introduces a “cold‑ish” tier for regularly accessed website assets, and highlights API‑driven benefits like global replication for video streaming. ## Full Transcript
if we think about object storage which
is kind of a newish tier
object storage the idea is for
relatively low performance storage at a
relatively low cost that is designed to
serve the needs of the internet workload
and so by internet workloads i'm talking
about web applications i'm talking about
websites and website hosting and
delivering content across the internet
but also a way to find a new home for
all of that data that we used to store
on tape right we have to have a way to
take big volumes of data write that down
put it somewhere that is safe that is
secure and where we can hold on to it
for a long time for regulatory reasons
legal reasons and other
requirements that make it necessary for
us to keep that data for a long amount
of time so let's start off with what is
an object and why do we call it object
storage so
the concept in object storage is that
you have an object right now
that object can be any kind of file
there aren't really any file
restrictions or anything like that there
are some characteristics that are very
important but as a general rule any kind
of file can be an object so
we'll throw a little object in there now
there are four essential components to
that object that make it usable in the
computing sense right the first one is
for every object we have to have an id
we have to have some sort of a unique
identifier that lets us know that what
this object is when it comes time to
retrieve it that's the first piece the
second piece is obviously you've got to
have some data
you know what's the point of having a
file and all of this information about
it if you don't have the data itself so
this could be an excel file it could be
a video file it could be an audio file
any kind of file but you've got to have
the actual data itself
the third piece
that you have to have is
metadata so what is metadata metadata is
everything that you need to know
about this file and about the data
itself who created it when was it
created
what is it used for what is the file
type how large is it the metadata is
what makes it possible to go out and
find it search it index it so that you
can bring it up and use it whenever you
need to because again all that's being
displayed out right now is the id the id
is not terribly useful and then the last
thing that you have to have
are your attributes now attributes are
related to metadata they aren't exactly
the same thing but they're close
attributes can be are certain users
allowed to override it are certain users
allowed to download it are certain users
allowed to delete it so the attributes
are about the object itself rather than
about the data
but again those are those four essential
components this is what you use
when you actually create something so
you've got your object here right and
then what do you do with it well in the
world of object storage which is
unstructured you take all of your
objects and you drop them into a bucket
so
let's do this on this side so imagine i
have
a bucket
and my bucket can have a handle why not
and so into my bucket i'm going to put
all of these objects and now this is the
neat part these buckets can be as big as
you need them to be they can scale to
hold billions of objects now it's not
always a good idea to put billions of
objects in it but they can in fact scale
to that size
and then what's really neat about object
storage because remember we want to be
able to use this for cold storage too
right we need to put things in it that
can never be deleted
is whenever you the user you're going to
interact with this thing by an api right
so you're not ever going to interact
with the buckets individually here we'll
throw you in
there you are
you're using object storage it's great
so
you're going to take your objects you're
going to drop them into this bucket now
on the back end the magic of object
storage
is your object here call it o
it is going to replicate out of this
bucket the bucket is a virtual construct
but we are going to take it and we are
going to say all right well
i have
three physically separated devices
and i'm going to take a copy of your
object
and i'm going to replicate it out into
all three of them
and my purpose in replicating them out
into all three of those locations is
data integrity data security that way if
the physical device here right each of
these buckets is going to reside on a
physical device so we'll call this p1
p2
and p3
so we're going to replicate it out your
object is going to be on three physical
different devices so if there's a
hardware problem or a network outage or
whatever in p1 that's okay you've still
got copies in p2 and p3 you can still
get the data that you need
now when we get into the details of
object storage all of a sudden you start
saying man there's a lot of complexity
in this right so not only do i have
the object buckets but the way that it's
priced and metered and billed is kind of
unique and people are asking me about
how many gets and how many puts and how
much storage am i taking up
and the metering and building around
object storage everyone that sells it
has their own different metrics on it
but here's the important parts to
consider
the first is what is your responsiveness
or your response time right so from a
price perspective the higher performance
that you want and this is true for all
cloud storage but the more performance
you want
the more it's going to cost if you have
data
that you have packaged up and it's data
that for 20 years your company's been
taking it writing it to tape sending
that tape to vaults and storing it in
vaults where it will probably never be
seen again that can go into the very
coldest of cold tears right that is
going to be the least expensive
and so we're going to call that cold
times 10.
that is the coldest of cold tears
up from that where you need to get to it
every so often but you don't really need
to get to it much that's gonna be a two
dollar sign one right we're gonna we're
gonna charge a little bit more for that
we're just gonna call that cold
maybe this is data that you need to get
to once every six months something like
that
but maybe you're earning a website and
you are using these object storage
buckets to host all of the assets for
your website obviously that is going to
cost a little bit more right because you
are sending data out on a regular basis
so that's going to get our three dollar
signs
and
i'm going to call this one cold-ish
it's not really warm because the concept
of a warm tier doesn't really exist in
object storage but it's cold-ish
and so this is videos it is pictures it
is physical files um and what makes
object storage really neat is on the
back end through the magic because
remember you you're interacting via an
api you're not interacting with these
things directly
you can do all kinds of nifty front-end
things for it and that's the really neat
part of object storage and that's the
benefits of it so let's talk about some
of them right um hosting videos for
streaming over the internet perfect
perfect use case for object storage
because like i said before we can
replicate these things out right so for
your video streaming
rather than just replicating it into
three buckets that are all in the same
place let's replicate it out globally
let's replicate it out so that we are
hosting those videos
not just in their primary location but
in three different locations
in seven different countries around the
world decreasing the latency for your
users so that their streaming experience
is better
let's talk about another good use case
um
uh file sharing so let's imagine a
company where you're collaborating on
spreadsheets and powerpoints and things
like that and you've got collaborators
that work all over the world
well
for versioning purposes
you can have different versions that
overwrite the previous version as long
as those attributes allow for it and so
if i've got my friend eric who is
working in london can create a file
i can get a copy of that file make my
changes to it upload it back in and i've
got version two that's the metadata
and then i can have a colleague in
singapore sam who downloads that file
makes some more changes to it uploads it
back in version three again incrementing
the metadata
but that allows for this cross-globe
collaboration on a single file type and
it makes everybody's lives easier but
we're doing it at very low cost much
less expensive than trying to
send files around via email because
emails have to get stored in a much more
expensive storage tier much less
expensive than fedexing thumb drives
around and again
being able to be done in a secure manner
because we have control over who can see
and access these objects
um other web hosting obviously is going
to be important we talked about
regulatory data before the regulatory
data and cold storage
let's say that you're involved in a
digital archiving project and you're
working with a university or library and
you're taking digital photographs of
manuscript documents and you want to
host those out for everyone in the world
to be able to see object storage perfect
place to store that kind of data because
again it's not getting accessed very
often
it is
right once and then read many many many
times and you can host it in a secure
manner
so hopefully you've enjoyed this this
has been a good overview of object
storage as always if you have any
questions please feel free to leave them
in the comments i'll do my best to
answer some of my colleagues at ibm well
and if you have any other questions just
let us know
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