Advanced 20 min readModule: Module 9: Storage Systems: Object, Block & File
Storage Systems: Object (S3), Block (EBS) & LSM-Trees
Understand object storage mechanics, block devices, and write-optimized Log-Structured Merge (LSM) trees.
What You Will Learn in This Lesson
- Object Storage (AWS S3) for immutable blobs with 99.999999999% durability
- Block Storage (AWS EBS) for high-IOPS database volumes
- LSM-Trees (RocksDB, Cassandra) for ultra-fast write-heavy workloads
Introduction & Core Concept
Different workloads require different storage engines: Object Storage for media files, Block Storage for database disk partitions, and LSM-Trees for high-write logging.
WHY DOES THIS MATTER IN THE REAL WORLD?
LSM-Trees append writes sequentially to disk (100x faster than random B-Tree in-place overwrites), making them ideal for time-series and write-heavy systems.
LSM-Tree Write Pipeline
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Line-by-Line Technical Breakdown
1Object storage uses erasure coding across multiple availability zones to achieve 11 nines of durability.
Try It Yourself (Interactive Editor)
Modify the code in real-time and click Run to test live browser output and console logs.
Intelligent Code Runner & Live Sandbox[TEXT]
TEXT SOURCE EDITOR
Interactive Live CodeIndustry Best Practices & Professional Standards
- Store user uploads (images/videos) in object storage (S3), never inside relational database BLOBs.
Lesson Summary & Core Takeaways
- Choosing the right storage architecture determines system performance and durability.