What is Object Storage?

Choosing a flexible and scalable data storage option for your business is crucial. It will define how well your solution interacts with your clients, and how you can grow your business in the long run. One of the most popular solutions to manipulate and store data is object storage, thanks to its capacity to handle unstructured data, unlimited scaling options and other benefits.

Let’s dive into the details and see how object storage can be beneficial for your business.

Also called object-based storage, object storage has been around for a relatively short time. It is a data storage architecture where each data unit is stored as a self-contained, discrete unit. These units are called ‘objects’. Each object is a self-contained repository, with unique data, metadata and ID.


All the objects are stored in a flat address space, and there is no limit to how many objects you can store. Objects can be any type of data: video, audio, text, .pdf, etc.


What are the features of Object Storage?

• All objects have their own metadata. The metadata allows better identification and classification.
• Managing unstructured data.
• Unlimited scalability. You can infinitely add extra storage as your solution and data grow.
• To address an object, you only need to know the name of the object (key). Enter the key in the lookup table to retrieve the object.

According to some analysists, soon most of the data will be unstructured, which makes object storage the first option for storing and managing your data. Here is what you win by choosing object storage:

• Unlimited scalability. Object storage is the only option that can store data at a huge scale, up to petabytes.
• Cost efficiency and flexibility. Unlike with file storage where you need to pay for storage in advance, with object storage you pay only for what has been used.
• Thanks to the flat structure, object storage overcomes many limitations that come with file storage. These limitations are mostly due to the hierarchical organization.
• Customizable metadata makes it easier to handle large amounts of data.

Cloud native application development and Object Storage go hand in hand. The app development is a process that never stops, and businesses need a solution which will bring the app to the market quickly and for a reasonable price.


Object Storage is the best solution of cloud native applications.
Applications can connect to the object store directly. As the business and the app solution grow, you can adjust the Object Storage plan and scale accordingly.
Object Storage is durable, scalable, secure and affordable, offering you fast and agile access to the data.


As you can see, using object storage is beneficial for your business on so many levels. How do you choose the storage provider who will bring you all the possible benefits and beyond?

Leading player on the European cloud market, Scaleway offers a scalable and affordable object storage solution — Scaleway Object Storage. You have already seen all the pros of object storage, and this solution overdelivers on each one of them.


Why choose Scaleway Object Storage?

1. Multi-cloud experience. It is fully compatible with the Amazon S3 protocol, and all your favorite solutions can interoperate with each other within.
2. Pricing. You pay for what you use, and you still don’t overpay. Scaleway Object Storage price starts at 0.012€/GB/month for One Zone IA class.
3. Very user-friendly interface. Who wants to complicate things in their business? Scaleway is here to make your life easier, not the other way round. With a simple and customizable Scaleway Console, you can manage your data in no time by using the Drag and Drop function.
4. Ultra-security. Scaleway uses strong erasure coding to protect your data. Even more, your data archived through Glacier, our Object Storage cold storage class is stored in an ultra-secure data bunker located 25 meters under Paris. You can relax and let your data into very safe hands.
5. Full lifecycle support. We mentioned different types of data above, from ‘hot’ to ‘cold’, based on your access needs. Scaleway Lifecycle allows you to setup transition rules for your objects, and change them when you need to. You can archive the data from the Object Storage’s Standard class to One Zone – IA class, or move it Storage’s Glacier cold class when you don’t need frequent access. Bonus: you can add expiration rules and delete the files after the upload — this will also help you save on storage fees.
6. Unlimited data volume. We have talked a lot about scalability and being able to grow your data but where is the limit? Thanks to a sophisticated and customized backend, you can securely and infinitely host all your objects in one single bucket. There is NO limit on the file size. You can upload your largest files with the Amazon S3 Multipart upload feature which is also very simple to use.

Got questions? You can reach Scaleway’s technical assistance 24/7 either by ticket, or by phone, depending on your plan.