Cloud Filestore: A new high performance storage option by Google Cloud Platform

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Google recently came up with a new storage option for developers in its cloud. Cloud Filestore which is in its beta will launch next month according to the Google Cloud Platform Blog.

Applications that require a filesystem interface and a shared filesystem for data can leverage this file storage service. It provides a fully managed Network Attached Storage (NAS) service to effectively integrate with Google Compute Engine and Kubernetes Engine instances. Developers can leverage the abilities of Filestore for high performing file-based workloads. Now enterprises can easily run applications that depend on traditional file system interface with Google Cloud Platform.

Traditionally, if applications needed a standard file system, developers would have to improvise a file server with a persistent disk. Filestore does away with traditional methods and allows GCP developers to spin-up storage as needed.

Filestore offers high throughput, low latency and high IOPS (Input/output operations per second). This service is available in two tiers; premium and standard.

The premium tier costs $0.30/GB/month and promises a max throughput of 700 MB/s and 30,000 max IOPS. The standard tier costs $0.20/GB/month with 180 MB/s max throughput and 5,000 max IOPS.

A snapshot of Filestore features

Filestore was introduced at the Los Angeles region launch and majorly focused on the entertainment and media industries, where there is a great need for shared file systems for enterprise applications. But this service is not limited only to the media industry, other industries that rely on similar enterprise applications can also benefit from this service.

Benefits of using Filestore

A lightning speed experience

Filestore provides high IOPS for latency sensitive workloads such as content management systems, databases, random i/o, or other metadata intensive applications. This further results in a minimal variability in performance.

Consistent performance throughout

Cloud Filestore ensures that one pays a predictable price for predictable performance. Users can independently choose the preferred IOPS–standard or premium– and storage capacity with Filestore. With this option to choose from, users can fine tune their filesystem for a particular workload. One will also experience consistent performance for a particular workload over time.

Simplicity at its best

Cloud Filestore, a fully managed, NoOps service, is integrated with the rest of the Google Cloud portfolio. One can easily mount Filestore volumes on Compute Engine VMs. Filestore is tightly integrated with Google Kubernetes Engine, which allows containers to refer the same shared data.

To know more about this exciting release, visit Cloud Filestore official website.