Object storage technology is rapidly coming into its own as an option for a wide range of applications, including backups, archives, medical images and video. But storage experts warn that performance issues and a lack of standardisation among object storage interfaces mean it’s not a match for every application.

Object storage takes the technology of file storage and makes it more efficient, says Graeme O’Driscoll, innovation and technology manager for cloud at Internet Solutions. It’s a cheaper form of storage than more traditional block storage because it addresses many of the inefficiencies inherent in block or file storage. Block storage is somewhat wasteful because block sizes are fixed, resulting in ‘half empty’ blocks. This means companies are paying for space they don’t use, but the technology is unbeatable for high-performance databases, O’Driscoll says.

Object-based storage systems throw out the block file system approach. They don’t need as much metadata as file systems to store and access files. Rather than using hierarchies, which become slower and more complex as they grow, object storage uses a structurally flat data environment that scales out more easily.