Google Cloud Platform for Developers

Choosing the right storage class

All storage classes are controlled with the same APIs, have the same core features, and offer similar performance in terms of latency and throughput. This means developers do not need to take storage class into account when writing applications to interact with Cloud Storage data. The decision of which storage class to use in a given situation will ultimately depend on a number of factors, but most significantly: price, availability, and locality.

A good place to start is by estimating how often the data will be accessed. Specifically, consider short-term access frequency, as data can be migrated from Regional or Multi-Regional Storage to Nearline or Coldline Storage at any time. The impact of this is that ...