Object Storage — Cloud Storage
Store objects in buckets with one API across storage classes and global/regional location.
Google Cloud Storage is GCP's object store: objects live in buckets, addressed by name, with no real folder hierarchy. A defining trait is that a single API and object semantics span all storage classes — Standard (hot), Nearline (~monthly access), Coldline (~quarterly), and Archive (cold) — so moving data between classes does not change how you access it, and retrieval is fast even for Archive (milliseconds first-byte, unlike some competitors' rehydration). It powers data lakes, backups, static hosting, and is the staging ground for BigQuery and Dataflow.
A storage company with one membership card that opens every facility from the busy downtown locker (Standard) to the remote vault (Archive) — and unlike rivals, even the deep vault hands your box back almost instantly rather than making you wait hours.