Blob Storage
Blob Storage (aka Binary Large Object Storage) is a type of object storage designed specifically for storing large volumes of unstructured data, like video, documents, backups and logs.
It is most commonly associated with cloud platforms, such as Azure Blob Storage and Amazon S3, but the concept applies generally to any object-based storage system.
| Term | Description |
|---|---|
| Blob | A single object containing data + metadata + unique ID (like a file). |
| Container | A grouping of blobs, similar to a folder. |
| Storage Account | The root namespace that contains containers (in Azure/other cloud services). |
| Metadata | Key-value pairs associated with a blob (e.g., content-type, tags). |
| In Amazon S3 has Buckets that similar to containers. |
Blob storage and Other storage types
| Feature | Blob Storage | Block Storage | File Storage |
|---|---|---|---|
| Data Type | Unstructured data (media, logs) | Structured (DBs, OS disks) | File shares (SMB/NFS) |
| Protocol | HTTP/HTTPS (REST APIs) | iSCSI, Fibre Channel | NFS, SMB |
| Access Style | API-based | Mount as disk | Mount as file share |
| Scalability | High | Medium | Medium |
S3 Advantages and Disadvantages
