Cloud Storage Choices for Kubernetes

Kubernetes (K8s) has become the go-to platform for orchestrating containerized applications. However, choosing the appropriate cloud storage type for your workloads often leaves many organizations puzzled. This blog post aims to break down the complex container storage landscape and provide clarity for K8s users. By understanding the storage types available and their best use cases, you’ll be better equipped to make educated choices that align with your workload requirements and data strategy.

Understanding the Importance of Storage in K8s

K8s is powerful for automating the deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications, but managing data persistence is a key challenge, especially for stateful applications. Stateless applications don’t require persistent storage as they store data temporarily and can discard it after a session ends. However, for stateful applications, which need persistent data storage, choosing the right cloud storage solution is crucial.

Organizations running K8s for stateful use cases — such as large-scale application deployments, high-performance computing (HPC), AI/ML workloads, microservices management, CI/CD pipelines, and big data processing — must consider storage types that ensure data is consistently available and protected, even as containers scale up or down.

Key Cloud Storage Types for K8s

There are three primary cloud storage types that serve different purposes within containerized workloads:

1. Block Storage

Block storage is a low-latency, high-performance option that breaks data into blocks and stores them across a network. It’s commonly used for applications that need fast read/write operations, such as databases or high-performance computing systems. Each block operates independently, making it ideal for:

• Databases (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL)
• Transaction-heavy applications
• Virtual machines

2. File Storage

File storage stores data in a hierarchy of files and folders, making it suitable for workloads that require shared access to files or structured data. Applications that need access to a shared file system across multiple containers will benefit most from this storage type. Common use cases include:

• Content management systems
• File sharing applications
• Development environments

3. Object Storage

Object storage manages data as objects, which include the data itself, metadata, and a unique identifier. This type of storage is highly scalable and is perfect for applications that need to store large volumes of unstructured data. Object storage is typically used for:

• Big data analytics
• AI/ML workloads
• Backup and archival solutions

Matching Storage to Your Workload

When it comes to choosing the right cloud storage for your K8s environment, understanding your workload requirements is essential. Here’s a quick breakdown of how to align storage types with common K8s use cases: