Object storage

At its core, Cloud Files is an object storage solution and is not designed for high IOPS (Input/output Operations Per Second). Instead, Cloud Files is designed for consistent reliability of data. The primary function of Cloud Files is to ensure that your data is available when you ask for it. This works best with relatively static files, as opposed to files that are frequently updated.

An object is the basic storage entity and its metadata that represent the files that you store in Cloud Files. When you upload data to Cloud Files, the data is stored as-is (no compression or encryption) and consists of a location (container), its name, and optional metadata consisting of key/value pairs.

Objects are grouped into containers, and you can have any number of objects within a container.

See also

Understanding Cloud Files introduces key ideas. To learn how to put these ideas to work, start at Actions for Cloud Files.