Flexible and scalable data storage is a baseline requirement for most applications and services being developed with modern techniques and tools.
One common form of storage, that provides flexibility to support a variety of use cases, is block storage. Block storage services are relatively simple and familiar. Ensuring that you have the proper amount of storage will help make your website hosting or application more resilient and high-performing.
DigitalOcean Volumes are scalable, SSD-based block storage devices. Volumes allow you to create and expand your infrastructure’s storage capacity without needing to resize your droplets. Volumes are most useful when you need more storage space but don’t need the additional processing power or memory that a larger droplet would provide, like:
- As the document root or media upload directory for a web server
- To house database files for a database server
- As a target location for backups
- As expanded storage for personal file hosting platforms like ownCloud
- As components for building more advanced storage solutions, like RAID arrays
If you’d like to learn more about choosing the right storage option for your workload, we encourage you to check out this tutorial. Read this tutorial if you’d like a walkthrough of creating your first volume.
Until next time!