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5 Common Use Cases of Object Storage

Object Storage is a storage system architecture that uses objects to store data, unlike other methods such as hierarchical file storage or block storage. As a result, all metadata is stored alongside the object and provided with a unique identifier. When users attempt to read from or write to this object, the request is sent to the unique identifier regardless of its geographical location worldwide, and the object is retrieved or updated.

The greatest benefit of storing data in this format is the virtually unlimited scalability that can be achieved globally. Because all metadata is stored with the object, this enables faster and more efficient searching.

Here are some common use cases for Object Storage:

1. Storing Unstructured Data such as music, media files, or text documents. Any type of data that lacks a clear structure, has metadata (e.g., the artist of a song, album title, etc.), and is not frequently changed is suitable for Object Storage. Some popular products in this category that you may recognize are Netflix and Spotify, which use Object Storage to store their media files.

2. Backup and Recovery for Critical Applications and Businesses. With the rise of digital products, mobile devices, and the internet, consumers and businesses expect applications to be always available and perform well. Due to the high fault tolerance and low cost of Object Storage, many businesses use it to back up their data and operations to ensure business continuity and prevent data loss in case of disasters.

3. Long-term Archival Data Storage. Sometimes, customers, especially in the finance and healthcare industries, have requirements to store data for compliance or records for a certain period (x number of years). Since this data will exist and not be frequently changed, Object Storage is the perfect cost-effective solution for this use case.

4. Cloud Native Applications for Continuous Data Storage. As businesses look to modernize their application development methods to minimize time-to-market, they need a data storage system that can scale without increasing costs. Object Storage is an excellent solution for this, as applications can connect directly to the object storage system, allowing data to scale simply and efficiently as the business grows in user count and locations.

5. Data Lakes for Analytics. IDC projects that global data will increase from 33ZB in 2018 to 175ZB by 2025 (1ZB = 1 trillion GB). With the significant rise in the number of devices generating data (smartphones, smart devices, IoT sensors, etc.), there will be a vast amount of data flowing around that can be processed to gain intelligent insights. Current storage solutions such as NAS and other options are not efficient enough to support the immense growth of data generated from various sources. Object Storage can be an excellent solution for storing all types of data (structured, semi-structured, and unstructured) to provide businesses with a data storage location before processing and analyzing to generate important insights.

Sources: [1] IDC DataAge 2025, from IDC Global DataSphere, Nov 2018

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