Professional Cloud ArchitectAnalyze and optimize technical and business processesEasy
A global media company is planning to migrate its on-premises video editing and rendering farm to Google Cloud. The current setup involves large shared network storage (NAS) appliances that are accessed by hundreds of Linux workstations using NFS. The company requires low-latency, high-throughput shared file storage that can be accessed concurrently by many instances. Which Google Cloud service is the most appropriate for this requirement?
- APersistent Disk attached to a single Compute Engine instance.
- BCloud SQL with a large database instance.
- CCloud Storage buckets with FUSE adapter.
- DFilestore Enterprise NFS tier.
Show answer & explanationAnswer & explanation
Correct answer: D. Filestore Enterprise NFS tier.
Filestore Enterprise NFS tier is specifically designed for enterprise file workloads requiring high performance, low latency, and concurrent access from many clients, making it ideal for migrating on-premises NAS for video editing and rendering farms.
Why the other options are wrong
- A. Persistent Disk can only be attached to a single Compute Engine instance (or multiple in read-only mode for some types), not concurrently accessed by hundreds of instances as shared storage.
- B. Cloud SQL is a relational database service, not a shared file storage solution for arbitrary files like video content.
- C. Cloud Storage with FUSE adapter provides object storage mounted as a file system, but typically has higher latency and lower performance than dedicated file storage for heavy I/O workloads like video editing.
Google Cloud Shared File Storage
Google Cloud offers managed file storage solutions that provide shared access to files across multiple Compute Engine instances, suitable for workloads requiring POSIX compliance or NFS/SMB protocols.
- Filestore supports NFS for high-performance file sharing.
- Different Filestore tiers offer varying performance and availability.
- Cloud Storage is object storage, not a traditional file system.
Memory trick: Files shared, fast and free, Filestore's the key!