As organisations increasingly rely on the cloud for data protection and scalability, it’s essential to understand the different types of cloud storage available—especially when using popular solutions like Veeam Backup & Replication.

Two common storage types often mentioned are Cloud Storage for Veeam Cloud Connect and S3-compatible Object Storage. While both offer off-site backup capabilities, they serve different use cases and operate in distinct ways.

What is Veeam Cloud Connect Storage?

Veeam Cloud Connect is a feature within Veeam that enables customers to send backups and replicas to an offsite service provider, securely and without the complexity of setting up their own offsite infrastructure.

With Veeam Cloud Connect, storage is typically:

• Block-based, hosted in a managed environment by a cloud service provider.
• Designed for direct integration with Veeam’s backup jobs for easy setup and reliable performance.
• Often used for full VM backups, replication, and disaster recovery.
• Managed by the provider, ensuring compliance, availability, and support.

This type of storage is ideal for businesses wanting a fully integrated, secure, and compliant off-site backup and disaster recovery solution with multi-tenant support.

What is S3-Compatible Object Storage?

S3-compatible storage, on the other hand, is based on the object storage model popularised by Amazon’s S3. It is:

• Highly scalable, cost-effective, and suitable for storing massive amounts of unstructured data.
• Used in Veeam as Capacity Tier in Scale-Out Backup Repositories or as direct-to-object backups (from Veeam v12 onwards).
• Ideal for long-term retention, archive, or secondary copies of backups.
• Compatible with multiple vendors and applications beyond Veeam, thanks to the standardised S3 API.

This makes S3 storage excellent for tiered backup strategies, offloading older backups from expensive local storage, and ensuring long-term durability.

Key Differences at a Glance

Which One Should You Choose?

The choice depends on your organisation’s backup strategy:

• If you need Backup and Replication with DR, and fast recovery, Cloud Connect is the right fit.
• If you’re looking to optimise storage costs and meet long-term data retention policies, S3 storage is a smart addition or alternative.

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Here are more detailed details:

Object storage generally has slower recovery speeds compared to block storage, primarily due to its architecture and how data is accessed. 

Block storage‘s direct access to data blocks allows for faster retrieval, particularly when dealing with large datasets or when needing to recover entire systems. 

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Here’s a more detailed comparison:

Block Storage (Veeam Cloud Connect Storage):

• Fast Retrieval: Block storage is designed for low latency and high throughput, making it ideal for applications requiring rapid access to data, like databases or virtual machines. 
• Direct Access: Data is accessed in blocks, allowing for quick and targeted retrieval of specific data segments. 
• Suitable for Backups: Block storage excels in scenarios where full system images or point-in-time database rollbacks are needed. 
• Higher Cost: Can be more expensive, especially when considering the complexity of SAN setups and hardware requirements. 
• Scalability Limitations: Scaling can be more complex, often requiring manual setup and potentially facing limitations on volume size and block handling. 

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S3 Object Storage:

• Slower Retrieval: Object storage, while excellent for storing large amounts of data, typically has slower retrieval speeds compared to block storage due to its architecture and metadata handling. 
• Flat Structure: Data is stored as objects with associated metadata, which can introduce latency during retrieval. 
• Scalability: Designed for horizontal scalability, allowing for near-unlimited growth by adding more storage nodes. 
• Cost-Effective: Generally more cost-effective for storing large amounts of unstructured data. 
• Suitable for Specific Use Cases: Well-suited for scenarios like content delivery networks, big data analytics, and archival storage. 

In many cases, businesses benefit from using both storages: Cloud Connect for operational recovery and S3 for archiving and compliance.

Recovery Scenarios

• Disaster Recovery: In disaster recovery situations, block storage generally provides faster recovery times when dealing with full system images or database rollbacks. 
• Data Retrieval for Specific Applications: Object storage can be a good choice for scenarios where you need to retrieve specific data objects with metadata, but the overall retrieval speed is not a primary concern. 

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We offer both Veeam Cloud Connect services and a cost-effective, UK-hosted, S3-compatible object storage, enabling customers to protect and store their data securely, reliably, and sustainably.

Need help choosing the right solution for your business? Contact us today or learn more about our cloud backup options.