Optimising performance with block storage solutions in the cloud

If you are a modern business, you must be generating and processing vast amounts of data, which necessitates faster, more reliable storage solutions. With cloud computing becoming the foundation for modern IT infrastructure, optimising performance has become a top priority.

One of the best ways to optimise is through block storage solutions in the cloud, which will provide you with the flexibility, scalability, and speed required for any data-heavy application.

Understanding block storage solutions

Block storage, as the name suggests, stores data in fixed-sized blocks, which can be individually controlled and managed. Each block acts independently and can be retrieved, modified, or written without the need for handling entire datasets.

This makes block storage highly efficient for handling databases, transactional systems, and applications requiring quick access to specific pieces of data.

Unlike other cloud storage solutions—such as object storage, which stores data as objects, and file storage, which organises data in hierarchical file systems—block storage is optimised for workloads where performance is critical.

If you are running an enterprise application, processing large transactional data sets, or managing databases where every millisecond counts, block storage becomes an ideal solution. 

The promise of block storage technology for India

India stands at the forefront of technological advancement, with a rapidly growing digital economy. The adoption of block storage solutions can play a key role in this growth.

According to a recent report, the Indian cloud market is expected to reach $10 billion by 2025, driven by increased demand for scalable and efficient data management solutions. As businesses in sectors like finance, healthcare, and e-commerce continue to expand their digital footprints, the need for reliable and high-performance storage solutions becomes paramount.

Block storage technology promises several benefits for Indian businesses including enhanced performance, cost-efficiency, and support for innovation. With the ability to handle high IOPS and low-latency workloads, block storage can support complex applications like real-time analytics and high-performance computing.

Also, you can avoid hefty upfront capital expenditures associated with traditional on-premises storage systems. In my opinion, block storage can provide the agility needed to innovate rapidly without being hindered by infrastructure limitations both for startups and large enterprises.

Let’s talk a bit about the technology itself and discuss why it is so pivotal.

Key performance benefits of block storage

When you work on large-scale deployments, some performance benefits of block storage become apparent. Here are a few:

Low latency

One of the standout features of block storage solutions in the cloud is their ability to reduce latency significantly. By allowing direct access to data blocks, applications experience faster response times compared to file or object storage solutions.

This is crucial if real-time processing is an essential part of your business, especially if you are an e-commerce platform or a financial institution handling millions of transactions daily.

High IOPS (input/output operations per second)

Block storage is known for delivering high IOPS, a critical factor in optimizing application performance. Applications that require a high volume of transactions, such as database management systems or virtual machines, can benefit immensely from the ability to read and write large amounts of data quickly. This makes block storage an obvious choice for workloads that are I/O intensive.

Scalability and flexibility

As businesses grow, so does their data. Block storage solutions in the cloud offer unparalleled scalability, allowing you to expand your storage capacity without sacrificing performance. This flexibility ensures that you can handle sudden surges in data volumes without slowing down mission-critical operations.

Data durability and redundancy

In addition to performance benefits, cloud block storage solutions offer data durability through redundancy mechanisms. Data is replicated across multiple servers or regions, ensuring that in the event of a hardware failure, business operations remain uninterrupted.

This level of redundancy not only enhances reliability but also helps maintain consistent performance, even under unexpected circumstances.

Snapshot capabilities

Cloud-based block storage solutions provide the ability to take quick snapshots of data, making it easier to back up and restore systems without affecting performance.

This is particularly useful if you need to perform regular backups without downtime or risk to data integrity.

All this is true for general cloud deployments. But, what about AI and its interplay with block storage?

Use of block storage in AI

The global artificial intelligence (AI) market is poised to reach approximately $1,591 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 37.3% from 2023 to 2030.

In India, it is projected to grow to about $28.36 billion by 2030, with the Indian economy all set to generate an economic value of Rs 33.8 lakh crore (approximately $4.1 trillion) by then. This positions us as a key player in the global AI landscape as we leverage our tech talent and vibrant startup ecosystem.

So, no matter the size of your enterprise, when you're training or deploying AI models, especially on high-end cloud GPUs or GPU clusters, block storage becomes critical as it offers enhanced performance and scalability during training and inference.

For LLMs such as Llama 3.1 405B, the largest open-source language model out there, block storage offers high throughput and low latency, enabling fast data access across massive datasets.

This is especially important when you're training the models where high-speed data delivery needs to match the processing power of these GPUs, ensuring you fully leverage their capabilities.

Similarly, in Vision AI model training and inference, block storage optimises random I/O performance, allowing high-resolution images and video feeds to be quickly retrieved and processed by your GPU.

The ability to support parallel data access ensures smooth training on distributed systems or multi-GPU setups, like when you're using multiple H100 GPUs for large-scale image recognition tasks.

For media generation models, block storage ensures fast, efficient handling of large media files during training and inference.

Whether generating high-resolution images or videos, low-latency block storage works in tandem with the GPU’s advanced compute power, ensuring real-time processing without bottlenecks.

How does the future look?

In the AI era, block storage is the unsung hero. It helps the AI model training fully utilise the GPU’s capabilities. So, block storage, with its superior performance, scalability, and reliability, serves as a powerful enabler for handling high-demand applications, from databases to AI model training.

Whether you’re managing large-scale transactional systems or scaling your infrastructure to meet growing data needs, block storage will ensure that you have the speed and flexibility to stay competitive. For businesses in India, particularly those navigating rapid digital transformation, adopting cloud-based block storage solutions is not just a choice—it’s a strategic imperative for success.

Mohamed Imran, CTO (Chief Technology Officer), E2E Networks Ltd.