Google Cloud Storage is a RESTful

online file storage A file-hosting service, cloud-storage service, online file-storage provider, or cyberlocker is an internet hosting service specifically designed to host user files. It allows users to upload files that could be accessed over the internet afte ...

web service for storing and accessing data on Google Cloud Platform infrastructure. The service combines the performance and scalability of Google's cloud with advanced security and sharing capabilities. It is an ''Infrastructure as a Service'' (

IaaS The first major provider of infrastructure as a service (IaaS) was Amazon in 2008. IaaS is a cloud computing service model by means of which computing resources are supplied by a cloud services provider. The IaaS vendor provides the storage, net ...

), comparable to

Amazon S3 Amazon S3 or Amazon Simple Storage Service is a service offered by Amazon Web Services (AWS) that provides object storage through a web service interface. Amazon S3 uses the same scalable storage infrastructure that Amazon.com uses to run its ...

. Contrary to

Google Drive Google Drive is a file storage and synchronization service developed by Google. Launched on April 24, 2012, Google Drive allows users to store files in the cloud (on Google's servers), synchronize files across devices, and share files. In add ...

and according to different service specifications, Google Cloud Storage appears to be more suitable for enterprises.

Feasibility

User activation is resourced through the

API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...

Developer Console. Google Account holders must first access the service by logging in and then agreeing to the Terms of Service, followed by enabling a billing structure.

Design

Google Cloud Storage stores objects (originally limited to 100 GiB, currently up to 5 TiB) in projects which are organized into buckets. All requests are authorized using Identity and Access Management policies or

access control lists In computer security, an access-control list (ACL) is a list of File-system permissions, permissions associated with a system resource (object). An ACL specifies which User (computing), users or Process (computing), system processes are granted acc ...

associated with a user or service account. Bucket names and keys are chosen so that objects are addressable using HTTP URLs: * https://storage.googleapis.com/''bucket''/''object'' * http://''bucket''.storage.googleapis.com/''object'' * https://storage.cloud.google.com/''bucket''/''object''

Features

Google Cloud Storage offers four storage classes, identical in throughput, latency and durability. The four classes, Multi-Regional Storage, Regional Storage, Nearline Storage, and Coldline Storage, differ in their pricing, minimum storage durations, and availability. * Interoperability - Google Cloud Storage is interoperable with other cloud storage tools and libraries that work with services such as

and Eucalyptus Systems. * Consistency - Upload operations to Google Cloud Storage are atomic, providing strong read-after-write consistency for all upload operations. * Access Control - Google Cloud Storage uses

access control list In computer security, an access-control list (ACL) is a list of permissions associated with a system resource (object). An ACL specifies which users or system processes are granted access to objects, as well as what operations are allowed on gi ...

s (ACLs) to manage object and bucket access. An ACL consists of one or more entries, each granting a specific permission to a scope. Permissions define what someone can do with an object or bucket (for example, READ or WRITE). Scopes define who the permission applies to. For example, a specific user or a group of users (such as Google account email addresses, Google Apps domain, public access, etc.) * Resumable Uploads - Google Cloud Storage provides a resumable data transfer feature that allows users to resume upload operations after a communication failure has interrupted the flow of data.

References

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External links

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Google Cloud Storage Discussion GroupIntro to new Google cloud technologies: Google Cloud Storage, Prediction API, BigQuery
slideshare presentation by Chris Schalk (Developer Advocate at Google) {{Cloud computing Cloud storage Web services File hosting Network file systems Cloud computing providers Cloud platforms