Block Storage - Concepts

Block deviceLink to this anchor

A block device is a storage volume on a network-connected storage system that is exposed to the guest operating system as if it were a physical disk.

IOPSLink to this anchor

IOPS or Input/Ouptut Operations Per Second, is a unit of measurement that indicates how many input or output operations a storage device is performing per second.

Scaleway Block Storage Low Latency offers two IOPS limits:

• 5000 IOPS (5K IOPS)
• 15 000 IOPS (15K IOPS)

Local volumeLink to this anchor

The local volume of an Instance is an all SSD-based storage solution, using a RAID array for redundancy and performance, that is hosted on the local hypervisor.

Storage Area Networks (SANs)Link to this anchor

A Storage Area Network (SAN) consists of interconnected machines, network infrastructure and storage devices designed for performance and high-availability. Unlike a Network Attached Storage (NAS) which stores all data on a file level, the SAN stores all data on block level, this makes SAN a perfect solution for business critical applications and input/output intense operations like relational databases. The SAN is a network-connected solution, that operates independently from the local hypervisor hosting the virtual Instance. The storage capacity of the block devices on the SAN can be tailored towards your requirements.

VolumesLink to this anchor

A volume is a storage space used by your Instances. Several volumes can be attached to an Instance. In addition, they can be snapshotted, mounted or unmounted.