Google Cloud Storage vs Hitachi Universal Volume Manager

Google Cloud Storage is a managed service for storing unstructured data in buckets. Its storage classes—Standard, Nearline, Coldline, Archive, and Rapid—cover different access patterns, while Autoclass and Object Lifecycle Management can move or delete objects under access-based or custom rules. Data can be used with BigQuery, Managed Service for Apache Spark, and Gemini Enterprise Agent Platform. Transfer options include online, offline, and SFTP methods. Security controls include IAM access controls, encryption at rest and in transit, retention policies, and signed URLs. Soft delete is enabled by default with seven days of retention, and Object Versioning can preserve overwritten or deleted objects. Dual-region and multi-region buckets replicate data across separated regions for 99.99% availability. Users can access the service through the browser-based console, client libraries, command-line tools, or JSON and XML APIs. Always Free usage has monthly limits for storage, operations, and qualifying transfer in three US regions. Other charges may apply for operations, retrieval, replication, and network use, with rates varying by location and storage class.

Hitachi Universal Volume Manager connects external block storage to a local storage system and maps its volumes for host access. Hosts can use those mapped volumes in the same way as volumes held in the local system. Documented uses include assigning external volumes to hosts, backup, and moving data from an older storage system. Connections use Fibre Channel; iSCSI is also available for VSP One Block. The guide identifies supported third-party systems and provides a generic Fibre Channel profile for systems that meet part of the standard SCSI Primary Commands set. Operations are available through the REST API, Storage Advisor Embedded, and CCI. Mapped volumes can be used with other storage products, including Dynamic Provisioning, TrueCopy, ShadowImage, and Universal Replicator. For VSP One Block, up to 4,096 external storage systems and eight mapping paths per external volume are supported. Each mapped external volume is limited to 256 TB; data above that capacity cannot be accessed. The feature requires a license on the local storage system, and pricing is on request.