In the previous chapters, we covered several of the NoSQL and SQL solutions available on GCP, including Datastore, Bigtable, Cloud SQL, and Cloud Spanner. A common thread in each of these technologies is that they are designed to host and operate on structured data. By ensuring that data conforms to some level of structural integrity, these services are able to provide functionality such as introspection and aggregation. Generally speaking, these tools are designed to handle some form of system state.

Many services need to store various types of unstructured data, such as images or binary blobs. Additionally, various workflows require storing objects as part of a larger operation, such as imports and exports, or indefinitely, for purposes such as performing backups. To address these needs, Google released the developer preview of Google Storage for Developers...