What Is Object Storage

Backups, media libraries and archive dumps all end up in object storage, yet most site owners meet it only as "an S3 bucket". This page defines the model, sets it against block and file storage, and walks the backup setup — including what actually drives the bill.

Object Storage Explained (Buckets and Keys)

Object storage keeps files as objects inside buckets: each object is the data plus its metadata, addressed by a unique key in a flat address space and reached over REST APIs. There are no folders to climb — the key retrieves the object directly, and Amazon S3 defined the API everyone else now speaks.

The design is scale-out: capacity grows by adding storage nodes to the pool, never by resizing a volume. That is why object stores accept everything from a single WordPress export to petabyte media libraries without a migration in between.

Object vs Block vs File Storage

How the three storage models actually differ:

Choose by workload: databases and VM disks want block, shared team drives want file, and anything written once and read many times — backups, exports, media — belongs in object storage.

Why It Is Built for Backups and Media

• Scale without limits — add capacity as the archive grows; no volume ever fills up.
• Durability by replication — objects are copied across devices and locations, so a failed disk loses nothing.
• Metadata that works — tag objects for search, retention and lifecycle rules that move old snapshots to cheaper tiers.
• HTTP-native access — every object is a URL; no mount, no drive letter.
• Pay for what you store — no provisioning headroom you never use.

The trade-off: object storage is write-once, read-many. Editing an object means replacing it whole, so live databases stay on block storage.

S3-Compatible Tools and APIs

An object storage service exposes buckets over the S3-compatible API, so the tooling question is already solved. restic, JetBackup and UpdraftPlus write to it natively, and the aws cli or s3cmd handle one-off uploads. Any tool that says "S3-compatible" works with any provider speaking the same API — your backups are never locked to one vendor.

Pairing Object Storage With a CDN

Media libraries get faster and cheaper together: the bucket is the origin and a CDN caches objects at edge locations. Visitors download from an edge close to them, so the origin serves fewer full objects — which cuts egress charges — and pages load faster in the bargain.

Cost Model: Storage vs Egress (INR Notes)

An object-storage bill has three parts: storage charged per GB-month, egress charged per GB delivered out, and small per-request fees. The storage rate is what brochures advertise, but egress is what surprises — pulling the same archive out repeatedly can cost more than keeping it.

That is also why "cheapest cloud object storage" is a bad question: the cheap-storage provider with expensive egress loses to the balanced one for busy sites. Ask for the egress rate too. WebJi®'s backup plans bundle the offsite object-storage copy with the software writing to it, from ₹1,300/month, and any larger object-storage work is quoted by email before payment.

Using It for Website Backups (Steps)

The setup, in order:

1. Provision a bucket — or activate a managed service: WebJi®'s backup plans provide the offsite object-storage copy and the software writing to it, from ₹1,300/month.
2. Create credentials scoped to that bucket only — never a root account key.
3. Point your backup tool at the S3-compatible endpoint (JetBackup, UpdraftPlus, restic all speak it) and schedule the first full backup.
4. Test a restore — a backup you have never restored is a hope, not a backup.
5. Set lifecycle rules: older snapshots move to cheaper tiers or expire, keeping storage and egress costs predictable.

The managed route bundles steps 1–4 — see cloud server backup, or compare options on the object storage page.