Updated on 2025-05-22 GMT+08:00

PERF03-05 Selecting Appropriate Storage Services

  • Risk level

    Medium

  • Key strategies

    During architecture design, select an appropriate storage service based on service scenarios and data characteristics. There are three types of storage available for you to choose from: Elastic Volume Service (EVS), Scalable File Service (SFS), and Object Storage Service (OBS). Their differences are described in the following table.

    Dimension

    SFS

    OBS

    EVS

    Concept

    Provides on-demand high-performance file storage, which can be shared by multiple cloud servers. It is similar to a remote directory for Windows or Linux OSs.

    Provides massive, secure, reliable, and cost-effective data storage for users to store data of any type and size.

    Provides scalable, high-performance, high-reliability, block storage that can be used to meet a wide variety of service requirements. An EVS disk is similar to a hard disk on a PC.

    Data storage logic

    Stores files. Data is sorted and displayed in files and folders.

    Stores objects. Files are saved directly to OBS. The files automatically generate corresponding system metadata. You can also customize the metadata if needed.

    Stores binary data and cannot directly store files. To store files, you need to format the disk with a file system first.

    Access method

    SFS file systems need to be mounted to ECSs or BMSs through the Network File System (NFS) or Common Internet File System (CIFS) protocol before they can be accessed. A network address must be specified or mapped to a local directory for access.

    Accessible through the Internet or Direct Connect. The bucket address must be specified for access, and transfer protocols HTTP and HTTPS are used.

    EVS disks can only be used and accessed from applications after being attached to ECSs or BMSs and initialized.

    Scenario

    High-performance computing (HPC), media processing, file sharing, content management, and web services

    Note:

    HPC: High bandwidth is required for shared file storage, such as gene sequencing and image rendering.

    Big data analytics, static website hosting, online video on demand (VoD), gene sequencing, and intelligent video surveillance

    HPC, enterprise core cluster applications, enterprise application systems, and development and testing

    Note:

    HPC: High-speed and high-IOPS storage is required, such as industrial design and energy exploration.

    Capacity

    PiB-level

    EiB-level

    TiB-level

    Latency

    3–10 ms

    10 ms

    Sub-milliseconds

    IOPS/TPS

    10,000 per file system

    Tens of millions

    128,000 for a single disk

    Bandwidth

    GiB/s

    TiB/s

    MiB/s

    Data sharing

    Yes

    Yes

    Yes

    Remote access

    Yes

    Yes

    No

    Used independently

    Yes

    Yes

    No

    Hyperlink

    SFS official website

    OBS official website

    EVS official website