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Cloud Computing · Foundational

Block Storage

Storage that presents raw volumes divided into fixed-size blocks to an operating system, which formats them with a file system.

Definition

Block storage provides low-latency, high-IOPS volumes attached to virtual machines, suitable for boot disks, databases and transactional applications. Cloud examples include Amazon EBS, Azure managed disks, Google Persistent Disk and Hyperdisk and OCI Block Volume.

Example

A database VM uses a 1 TB SSD block volume formatted with XFS.

Exam tip

Block storage is usually attached to one VM in one zone; shared access across many servers points to file storage.

Don't confuse it with

Related terms