Meaning of "Minimum storage duration" of Google Cloud storage

Question

I know that Google Cloud storage has 4 options of storage and each options has a different of "Minimum storage duration"

https://cloud.google.com/storage/docs/lifecycle?hl=vi

Standard Storage: None

Nearline Storage: 30 days

Coldline Storage: 90 days

Archive Storage: 365 days

What is the meaning of "Minimum storage duration"?

I guess that, "Minimum storage duration" is the time that your data has been keep in Google Cloud storage.

Is it the period after which your data will automatically be deleted if not used?

Such as:

• I use options Nearline Storage: 30 days to store my data.
• If within 30 days I don't use this data. It will be delete
• If I use this data frequently. It will be stored until I delete my bucket.

Is my guess right?

If wrong: please tell me the right thing.

Answer 1

In order to understand the Minimum Storage Duration, it is necessary to know the concept of Storage classes first.

What is a storage class?

The storage class of an object or bucket affects the object's/bucket's availability and pricing.

Depending on one's use case and how frequently one accesses the data in a bucket, he may chooce one of the available Storage Classes:

Standard Storage is used for data that is frequently accessed and/or stored only for short periods of time.

Nearline Storage is a low-cost option for accessing infrequently data. It offers lower at-rest costs in exchange to lower availability, 30 days minimum storage duration and cost for data access. It is suggested to be used in use cases where one accesses his data once per month on average.

Coldline Storage is similar to Nearline, but offers even lower at-rest costs again in exhange to lower availability, 90 days minimum storage duration and higher cost for data access.

Archive Storage is the lowest-cost, highly durable storage service for data archiving, online backup, and disaster recovery. has no availability SLA, though the typical availability is comparable to Nearline Storage and Coldline Storage. Archive Storage also has higher costs for data access and operations, as well as a 365-day minimum storage duration.

You may find detailed information in the Storage Classes documentation.

So what is the minimum storage duration?

A minimum storage duration applies to data stored using one of the above storage classes. You can delete the file before it has been stored for this duration, but at the time of deletion you are charged as if the file was stored for the minimum duration.

Please note that minimum storage duration doesn't have to do with automatic deletion of objects.

If you would like to delete objects based on conditions such the Age of an object, then you may set an Object Lifecycle policy for the target object. You may find an example on how to delete live versions of objects older than 30 days, here.

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