Google Cloud Storage is a RESTful online file storage web
service for storing and accessing data on Google Cloud Platform infrastructure.
The service combines the performance and scalability of Google's cloud with
advanced security and sharing capabilities. It is an Infrastructure as a
Service (IaaS), comparable to Amazon S3 online storage service. Contrary to
Google Drive and according to different service specifications, Google Cloud
Storage appears to be more suitable for enterprises.
Google Storage (GS) stores objects (originally limited to
100 GiB, currently up to 5 TiB) that are organized into buckets (as S3 does)
identified within each bucket by a unique, user-assigned key. All requests are
authorized using an access control list associated with each bucket and object.
Bucket names and keys are chosen so that objects are addressable using HTTP
URLs:
https://storage.googleapis.com/bucket/object
http://bucket.storage.googleapis.com/object
https://storage.cloud.google.com/bucket/object
Google Storage offers four storage classes, identical in
throughput, latency and durability. The four classes, Multi-Regional Storage,
Regional Storage, Nearline Storage, and Coldline Storage, differ in their pricing,
minimum storage durations, and availability.[2]
Interoperability - Google Storage is interoperable with
other cloud storage tools and libraries that work with services such as Amazon
S3 and Eucalyptus Systems.[dubious – discuss]
Consistency - Upload operations to Google Storage are
atomic, providing strong read-after-write consistency for all upload
operations.
Access Control - Google Storage uses access control lists
(ACLs) to manage object and bucket access. An ACL consists of one or more
entries, each granting a specific permission to a scope. Permissions define
what someone can do with an object or bucket (for example, READ or WRITE).
Scopes define who the permission applies to. For example, a specific user or a
group of users (such as Google account email addresses, Google Apps domain,
public access, etc.)
Resumable Uploads - Google Storage provides a resumable data
transfer feature that allows users to resume upload operations after a
communication failure has interrupted the flow of data.