Google Cloud Storage

Google Cloud Storage is Google Cloud's managed object storage service. It keeps unstructured data as objects in buckets. Common uses are serving website content, holding analytics and machine learning datasets, and keeping backups and archives. Each bucket sits in a single region, a dual-region or a multi-region. Dual-region buckets can use turbo replication, which aims to copy new objects to the paired region within 15 minutes. Storage classes run from Standard through Nearline, Coldline and Archive, and the documentation also lists a newer Rapid class for AI and analytics workloads. Autoclass or lifecycle rules can move data to cheaper classes automatically. Data protection includes object versioning, Bucket Lock, retention policies, and soft delete, which is on by default with seven days of retention. Encryption keys can be managed by Google, by the customer through Cloud KMS, or supplied by the customer. You can work with buckets through the console, the gcloud CLI, client libraries in eight languages, JSON and XML REST APIs, gRPC, Terraform, and Cloud Storage FUSE. It connects to BigQuery, Pub/Sub and Eventarc notifications, Cloud CDN, and Storage Transfer Service. Pricing is pay as you go with no minimum fee. In us-central1, storage costs about $0.020 per GB-month for Standard and $0.0012 for Archive. Operations, retrievals from colder classes, and network egress are charged on top. Its suits teams already on Google Cloud and data-heavy workloads. The main limitation is cost predictability: internet egress starts at about $0.12 per GB, colder classes add retrieval and early-deletion charges, and reviewers say bills are hard to estimate.