Block storage
Also known as: EBS, Persistent disk, Managed disk
Block storage provides raw disk volumes (like AWS EBS, Azure Managed Disks, or GCP Persistent Disk) attached to instances, priced by provisioned gigabytes and performance tier.
Unlike object storage, block volumes are billed for the capacity you provision — not what you use — and keep billing even when the attached instance is stopped. Higher-performance tiers (provisioned IOPS/throughput) cost more, and snapshots add their own storage charges.
A frequent source of waste is orphaned volumes and old snapshots left behind after instances are deleted.
Related terms
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