--- title: 'What are the different types of storage: block, object and file?' description: Networked storage services are generally classified in the way they are consumed and interfaced with on the client side. The most traditional service type is shared filesystem, or simply “file storage”, which as the name implies offers to multiple clients the ability to access a single shared folder. The two most popular shared filesystem […] url: https://canonical.com/blog/what-are-the-different-types-of-storage-block-object-and-file?format=md --- 1. [Blog](https://canonical.com/blog) 2. Article --- [Canonical](https://canonical.com/blog/author/canonical "More about Canonical") 18 May 2015 # What are the different types of storage: block, object and file? [ceph](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/ceph) [Storage](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/storage) [UAS](https://canonical.com/blog/tag/uas) --- Share the article Networked storage services are generally classified in the way they are consumed and interfaced with on the client side. The most traditional service type is shared filesystem, or simply “file storage”, which as the name implies offers to multiple clients the ability to access a single shared folder. The two most popular shared filesystem protocols in use today are NFS and SMB/CIFS. Block storage provides network access to the equivalent of raw block devices. A client machine connects to a specific volume on the storage service and formats it as if it were a local block device. Multiple clients do not generally mount the same volume, but they may in master/slave high-availability configurations where the slave needs to be ready to take over the master. Block devices are usually exported over Fibre Channel, iSCSI or AoE (ATA over Ethernet). Object storage is a relatively new storage type, designed for unstructured data such as media, documents, logs, backups, application binaries and VM images. Conceptually they are like a persistent key/value store; objects are usually submitted via a REST API call, and an identifier returned. Most object stores allow attaching metadata to objects, and aggregating them into containers (or buckets). Both Ceph and Swift offer object store interfaces. The most popular cloud object store is AWS S3, and many object store implementations are compatible with it, including Ceph’s S3 RADOS Gateway service. *[Learn more about Ubuntu Advantage Storage](http://www.ubuntu.com/cloud/storage)* ## Sign up for our newsletter Get the latest Canonical news and updates in your inbox. Work email: \*I agree to receive information about Canonical's products and services. By submitting this form, I confirm that I have read and agree to [Canonical's Privacy Policy](https://canonical.com/legal/dataprivacy). Sign up ## Share on --- ## Related posts [### Predict, compare, and reduce costs with our S3 cost calculator](https://canonical.com/blog/predict-compare-and-reduce-costs-with-our-s3-cost-calculator) Previously I have written about how useful public cloud storage can be when starting a new project without knowing how much data you will need to store. However, as datasets... [Philip Williams](https://canonical.com/blog/author/philwilliams) 18 February 2026 [### MicroCeph: why it’s the superior MinIO alternative (and how to use it)](https://canonical.com/blog/microceph-why-its-the-superior-minio-alternative) Recently, the team at MinIO moved the open source project into maintenance mode and will no longer accept any changes. That means that no new features or enhancements will be... [Philip Williams](https://canonical.com/blog/author/philwilliams) 19 December 2025 [### How to reduce data storage costs by up to 50% with Ceph](https://canonical.com/blog/how-to-reduce-data-storage-costs-by-up-to-50-with-ceph) Canonical Ceph with IntelⓇ Quick Assist Technology (QAT) In our last blog post we talked about how you can use Intel® QAT with Canonical Ceph, today we’ll cover why this... [Philip Williams](https://canonical.com/blog/author/philwilliams) 3 February 2025 [### How to utilize CPU offloads to increase storage efficiency](https://canonical.com/blog/how-to-utilize-cpu-offloads-to-increase-storage-efficiency) Canonical Ceph with IntelⓇ Quick Assist Technology (QAT) When storing large amounts of data, the cost ($) to store each gigabyte (GB) is the typical measure used to gauge the... [Philip Williams](https://canonical.com/blog/author/philwilliams) 27 January 2025