14 Cloud Block Storage Providers
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01Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is the leading cloud block storage service — providing easy-to-use, high-performance, durable block storage volumes at any scale for EC2 instances. EBS offers multiple volume types: gp3 (general purpose NVMe SSD), io2 Block Express (ultra-high IOPS for mission-critical databases), st1 (throughput-optimized HDD for big data), and sc1 (cold HDD for archives). EBS Multi-Attach enables a single volume to be concurrently attached to up to 16 EC2 instances within an Availability Zone.
Best for: AWS-native workloads requiring high-performance block storage — from general-purpose gp3 volumes for boot disks and web servers to io2 Block Express for latency-sensitive Oracle RAC, SAP HANA, and SQL Server deployments. -
02Azure Disk Storage
Azure Disk Storage delivers high-performance, highly durable block storage for Azure Virtual Machines with 99.999% durability across four tiers: Ultra Disk (sub-millisecond latency, up to 160,000 IOPS), Premium SSD v2 (cost-optimized high IOPS), Premium SSD, and Standard SSD. Azure Managed Disks automatically handle storage account management, replication, and encryption — with shared disk support for Windows Server Failover Clustering and built-in integration with Azure Backup and Azure Site Recovery.
Best for: Azure VM workloads across the full performance spectrum — from Standard SSDs for dev/test to Ultra Disk for tier-1 SAP HANA, SQL Server Always On, and Oracle Database deployments requiring sub-millisecond storage latency. -
03Google Cloud Persistent Disk
Google Cloud Persistent Disk provides reliable, high-performance block storage for Compute Engine and GKE instances — with automatic encryption at rest, built-in redundancy within a zone, and live resize without downtime. Google's Hyperdisk portfolio (Hyperdisk Extreme, Hyperdisk Balanced, Hyperdisk Throughput) decouples IOPS and throughput provisioning from disk size, enabling independent scaling of compute and storage performance. Persistent Disk also supports read-only multi-attach for sharing disk images across many VMs simultaneously.
Best for: GCP Compute Engine and GKE workloads needing reliable persistent storage — particularly Hyperdisk Extreme for high-IOPS databases and Persistent Disk's unique read-many multi-attach for VM fleets sharing a common data volume. -
04Oracle Cloud Block Volumes
Oracle Cloud Block Volumes provide reliable, high-performance block storage designed to work seamlessly with both virtual machine and bare metal compute instances on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI). OCI block volumes deliver up to 1.25 million IOPS per volume — among the highest in the public cloud — with consistent low latency backed by NVMe flash arrays. They support online volume resizing, cross-region replication, automated backups, and volume groups for consistent multi-volume snapshots of database clusters.
Best for: Oracle Database, Exadata Cloud Service, and enterprise application workloads on OCI — particularly bare metal deployments requiring extreme IOPS density and the predictable, consistent performance guarantees that Oracle workloads demand. -
05Alibaba Cloud Block Storage
Alibaba Cloud Block Storage (Elastic Block Storage / EBS) provides block-level data storage attached to Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances — delivering high performance, low latency, and high reliability for cloud workloads in Asia-Pacific and global regions. Alibaba's Enhanced SSD (ESSD) family — ESSD, ESSD PL2, and ESSD PL3 — provides tiered NVMe performance up to 1 million IOPS, with built-in RAID-like redundancy, automated snapshots, and cross-zone disaster recovery capabilities.
Best for: ECS workloads on Alibaba Cloud in Asia-Pacific regions — particularly e-commerce databases, gaming backends, and financial applications requiring ESSD's ultra-low latency and high-IOPS performance at competitive pricing in Chinese and APAC markets. -
06Huawei Elastic Volume Service (EVS)
Huawei Cloud Elastic Volume Service (EVS) provides persistent block storage for Elastic Cloud Server (ECS) and Bare Metal Server (BMS) instances on Huawei Cloud. EVS offers multiple disk types — Ultra-High I/O (NVMe SSD), High I/O (SAS SSD), and Common I/O (SATA) — with online expansion, backup and restore, and cross-AZ replication. EVS integrates tightly with Huawei Cloud's database and middleware services, making it a core building block for enterprise workloads migrating to Huawei's global cloud regions.
Best for: Enterprises deploying on Huawei Cloud — particularly telecoms, financial institutions, and government organizations in China and EMEA markets who require persistent, high-IOPS block storage for ECS and bare metal workloads with local regulatory compliance. -
07NetApp Cloud Block Storage
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP (CVO) extends NetApp's enterprise ONTAP data management platform into the cloud — delivering fast, secure, cost-effective, shared block and file storage with consistent data services across AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. CVO provides enterprise data features including thin provisioning, deduplication, compression, instant snapshots, SnapMirror replication, and storage efficiency that dramatically reduce storage costs compared to native cloud block storage. It enables true hybrid cloud with seamless data portability between on-premises ONTAP and cloud.
Best for: Enterprises running NetApp ONTAP on-premises who want to extend the same data management, snapshot, and replication capabilities to AWS, Azure, or GCP — achieving consistent data services and reducing cloud storage costs with ONTAP's built-in efficiency technologies. -
08Vultr Block Storage
Vultr Block Storage provides fast, all-NVMe scalable block storage with built-in data protection and volume sizes up to 10 TB — attachable to any Vultr Compute instance. Its NVMe-only infrastructure delivers consistently high IOPS at competitive prices across 32 global locations, making it an attractive choice for developers and startups who need enterprise-grade block storage performance without hyperscaler complexity or cost. Vultr Block Storage supports live resizing and online attachment/detachment from running instances.
Best for: Developers and startups on Vultr needing affordable, high-performance NVMe block storage across 32 global locations — a cost-effective alternative to AWS EBS or Azure Disk for workloads that don't require hyperscaler-specific integrations. -
09IBM Cloud Block Storage
IBM Cloud Block Storage provides flash-backed block storage with local disk performance, SAN persistence, and durability — offering customizable IOPS tiers and predictable billing for IBM Cloud virtual servers and bare metal. IBM Cloud Block Storage supports Endurance (preset IOPS tiers: 0.25 to 10 IOPS/GB) and Performance (custom 100–48,000 IOPS) volume types, with replication between IBM Cloud data centers and seamless integration with IBM Cloud's database and analytics services.
Best for: IBM Cloud virtual server and bare metal workloads requiring predictable, SAN-backed block storage — particularly enterprises migrating IBM middleware, Db2, and IBM infrastructure workloads to IBM Cloud with consistent IOPS guarantees. -
10DigitalOcean Block Storage
DigitalOcean Block Storage (Volumes) provides secure, scalable SSD-based block storage attachable to DigitalOcean Droplets — designed for simplicity and developer productivity. Volumes can be resized online from 1 GB to 16 TB, attached/detached without downtime, and are replicated within a data center for durability. DigitalOcean's straightforward per-GB pricing and simple API make it an ideal block storage solution for web applications, databases, and development environments where operational simplicity is prioritized over enterprise data services complexity.
Best for: Developers and startups on DigitalOcean needing simple, affordable SSD block storage for Droplets — persistent volume storage for databases, CMS platforms, and application data with straightforward per-GB pricing and zero management overhead. -
11StorPool Block Storage
StorPool is a software-defined distributed block storage system designed as the ideal foundation for large-scale clouds running diverse, mission-critical workloads. Unlike cloud-provider managed disks, StorPool is deployed on standard x86 servers — transforming commodity hardware into a high-performance storage cluster with sub-millisecond latency, linear scalability, and five-nines availability. It powers hosting providers, MSPs, and enterprise private clouds with a fully API-driven, multi-tenant storage layer supporting NVMe and hybrid flash-HDD configurations.
Best for: Hosting providers, MSPs, and private cloud operators building their own block storage infrastructure — StorPool's software-defined approach delivers enterprise storage performance on commodity hardware, enabling differentiated cloud storage services. -
12Pure Storage Cloud Block Store (CBS)
Pure Storage Cloud Block Store (CBS) brings Pure's enterprise all-flash storage performance and data services to AWS and Azure — enabling organizations to run enterprise applications and Dev/Test environments in the cloud with the same Purity//FA software stack they run on-premises. CBS delivers consistent sub-millisecond latency, inline deduplication and compression, ActiveDR continuous replication, and unified management through Pure1 — giving enterprises a consistent operational model across on-premises FlashArray and cloud deployments.
Best for: Pure Storage FlashArray customers extending enterprise workloads to AWS or Azure — achieving consistent performance, data services, and operational tooling (Pure1) across hybrid cloud without retraining staff or rearchitecting applications. -
13HPE Cloud Volumes
HPE Cloud Volumes unlock the true potential of hybrid cloud by delivering enterprise cloud data services and seamless data mobility that maximize agility and innovation. Built on HPE's Nimble Storage and Primera all-flash platforms extended into the cloud, HPE Cloud Volumes provide consistent data protection, synchronous replication, and instant recovery SLAs across on-premises and cloud environments. The HPE GreenLake consumption model extends to cloud volumes, enabling organizations to pay per use for enterprise storage services across hybrid clouds.
Best for: HPE Nimble Storage and Primera customers building hybrid cloud architectures — seamlessly extending enterprise storage data services, replication, and instant recovery to cloud workloads with unified management and GreenLake consumption-based billing. -
14Lumen Cloud Block Storage
Lumen Cloud's SAN-based block storage provides built-in disaster recovery and delivers a guaranteed minimum of 2,500 IOPS scaling up to 20,000 IOPS with sub-5ms latency — suitable for enterprise-grade database and application workloads. Backed by Lumen's global fiber network and CDN infrastructure, Lumen Cloud block storage is designed for organizations requiring consistent, SAN-grade persistence without managing physical storage arrays, with replication and DR capabilities built in as standard features rather than add-ons.
Best for: Enterprises on Lumen Cloud needing SAN-grade block storage with guaranteed IOPS SLAs and built-in disaster recovery — particularly organizations in regulated industries requiring predictable storage performance and built-in data protection commitments.