Overview

Cloud block storage is a data storage system for cloud servers, much like a virtual private hard disk. AVL’s cloud block storage can be used to store any information, and offers great value for money at the lowest cost per GB on the market. Fully scalable, cloud block storage is always available and can be increases in size as required. If you no longer need it, you can drop it at any time without paying for any more than you’ve used.

AVL’s cloud block storage is an enterprise-grade, fully redundant system, using high performance SSD-accelerated disk drives. One of the main advantages of using a cloud block storage system is that it provides highly reliable, centralized storage with no single point of failure, making it ideally suited to a variety of applications, including:

  • Storage systems for files, databases, images or other file level data
  • High demand, data-centric applications
  • Fast background storage processing
  • Offline backups

Block storage volumes can be formatted using EXT4, EXT3, XFS, ZFS, NTFS or any other file system that your operating system supports. Each block storage volume is associated with one cloud server but can be detached and reattached to different cloud servers as required.

Use Cases

Cloud block storage is a cost-effective data storage system for cloud servers that can be used to store any information. Here are some examples of the more common use scenarios for cloud block storage.

Expanding Server Disk Capacity

Online disk storage is now cheap and safe enough to be used for a variety of general online uses such as file storage, server backups, databases and file archiving. Since the disk can be accessed only through your server, you remain in complete control over access to your storage.

Expanding Database

If your database expands to the point of filling up your main system disk, all you have to do is secure additional disk in the form cloud block storage. There’s no need to pay for more than you use, and block storage can be increased almost limitlessly to accommodate a database of any size.

Moving Servers

When making changes to your server deployment, you may need to shift data from one server to another, consolidate servers, or create additional servers. You can keep your data on cloud block storage for as long as you need it without having to pay for computing resources such as processors or main memory that you’re not using.

E-Commerce

Online stores are highly file-I/O intensive as thousands of images are uploaded by vendors and downloaded by buyers over the course of the day. These images can be stored on your cloud block storage and accessed by very large numbers of users, without compromising on performance. Furthermore, if you run multiple online shops with products appearing on more than one site, you can save upload time by addressing images at a single location.

Archiving of Emails, Historic Data, Event Logs

Make offline archiving a thing of the past. With AVL’s Cloud Block Storage, you can take archives off your local systems and free up your resources whilst maintaining logs, historic data and emails online, ready to be accessed in their archived location.

How it Works

Cloud block storage can be added in a matter of seconds, by following these simple steps:

  1. Log in to the AVL Cloud Management Console
  2. Go to the Cloud Block Storage Menu (Products->Cloud Block Storage) and click the “Add Cloud Block Storage Volume” button.
  3. Enter the amount of memory you require. If you already use block storage, simply adjust the existing memory allocation as required.
  4. Click on the “Attach” button and select the instance to attach the Cloud Block Storage volume.
  5. That’s it!

Pricing

AVL’s cloud block storage operates the simplest pricing model, and is charged by the minute or by the cloud server billing cycle it is attached to.

0.05$ per GB per month

There are no extra charges for IOPS and there are no IOPS limits. you can reach up to 20,000 IOPS for each cloud block storage object.

For example: 100GB of cloud block storage will cost just $5 a month.

You can adjust or drop your cloud block storage volume anytime you like, and pay no more than up to the minute.