A question I get a lot when explaining the company I am interning for is, “What is Object Storage?”
A few months ago, I was hesitant about applying to an internship at a technology company. Unlike many of my peers who view the Silicon Valley as the perfect gateway for fueling their careers and interests, I was never quite drawn to the tech scene I had grown up with.
My “Objective” Journey
At the same time, a majority of my hesitation could be attributed to intimidation – I had neither a technical background nor real understanding of the sorts of professions and companies that existed in the Silicon Valley. But given the exciting opportunity to intern at Cloudian these past few months, I got the chance to not only explore the cloud computing industry, but also immerse myself in an environment I was once too scared to venture into.
Along with the support of my manager and peers at Cloudian, one of the major projects I worked on as a marketing intern was a “draw my life” style video about object storage. Although I had absolutely no clue what object storage was prior to my internship, my co-workers were always there for me to turn to for help and guidance. After all, being given the opportunity to work on a topic I was previously unacquainted with translated into an opportunity to learn everything I stumbled upon.
So, What is Object Storage?
Okay, so here’s what I learned about object storage—and why it’s actually pretty amazing compared to other ways data can be stored.
First off, there are three main types of storage: file storage, block storage, and object storage. Before this internship, I had no clue what those even meant! But here’s the quick rundown:
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File storage is similar to how you save stuff on your computer—organized in folders and files. It’s simple and familiar, but when you have tons of data or lots of people accessing it at once, it can get messy and slow.
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Block storage breaks data into chunks called blocks. It’s fast and sometimes used when computers need to access data really quickly. But it’s not great for things like pictures or videos because it doesn’t store extra info about the files.
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Object storage is different and kind of genius. Object Storage is a modern method for storing and managing large amounts of unstructured data, such as photos, videos, backups, documents, and more in a highly scalable and flexible way. It stores everything as “objects,” and each object isn’t just the data (like a photo or video), but also allows you to tag it with as many “labels” — or metadata — that you want to describe what it is. Plus, each object gets a unique ID, so you can find it fast without digging through folders.
What makes object storage so cool (and why it’s the best choice for companies) is:
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It can grow forever—object storage is built to handle huge amounts of data spread across tons of servers. So if a company has millions of photos or videos, object storage can handle that without breaking a sweat.
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It’s super safe—because it copies data to different places, if one server crashes or something goes wrong, the data isn’t lost.
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It’s smart—thanks to all that metadata, companies can tag, search, and organize their data in ways file and block storage just can’t.
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It’s budget-friendly—it doesn’t cost a fortune to keep all that data stored safely, especially if it’s stuff you don’t need to change all the time, like backups or archives.
So yeah, object storage might have sounded like a scary tech term at first, but it’s actually this powerful, flexible way to keep all kinds of data safe, easy to find, and ready for whatever a company needs next. And honestly? Learning about this made me realize there’s so much more to tech than just coding — it’s about solving real problems with smart ideas.
Object Storage Simplified
From there, my video project began to unfold – from hours upon hours of research to creating a script, incessant doodling, and many dry-erase marker stains, I was able to break it down and explain what object storage is in a simplified, visual way. Here’s the finished product:
Thanks to my team at Cloudian for supporting me the entire way. Having worked on this project has definitely instilled in me a new confidence to take a leap into the unknown. As I spend my last few days here, I am proud to have been able to spend some time familiarizing myself with the core of Cloudian’s product and leave a piece of something I created before I go!
Intern and guest blogger: Lesley
