Object storage.
WHAT IT PROVIDES
Storage for files and unstructured data, addressed by name within buckets.
WHAT STORAGE CLASSES EXIST
Standard, for frequently accessed data Nearline and coldline, for infrequent access Archive, for rarely accessed long-term retention
WHAT DIFFERS BETWEEN THEM
Storage cost, retrieval cost, and minimum storage duration.
WHY THAT MINIMUM MATTERS
Deleting early from a colder class incurs a charge as though it had been kept.
WHAT TO CONFIGURE
Lifecycle rules, moving or deleting objects automatically by age.
WHAT LOCATION TO CHOOSE
Near your users, or where obligations require.
WHAT TO SECURE
Public access, which is the commonest exposure Access control, preferring project-level permissions to per-object rules
WHY THAT PREFERENCE
Per-object access control becomes impossible to reason about.
WHAT TO ENABLE
Uniform access at the bucket level Versioning, where accidental deletion matters Retention policies, where data must not be deleted
WHAT SIGNED URLS PROVIDE
Temporary access to a specific object without credentials.
WHAT TO USE THEM FOR
Letting a user upload or download directly, without proxying through your application.
WHAT TO MONITOR
Storage growth, and egress charges.
