Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Block Volumes
Block storage software
Storage management software
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What is Oracle Cloud Infrastructure Block Volumes
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) Block Volumes is a managed block storage service for attaching persistent volumes to OCI compute instances. It targets infrastructure and application teams that need durable storage for databases, enterprise applications, and general-purpose VM workloads. The service supports online volume resizing and performance tuning, and it integrates with OCI features such as snapshots, backups, and encryption.
Tight OCI compute integration
Block Volumes attaches and detaches as persistent storage for OCI compute instances and supports common VM lifecycle operations. It integrates with OCI identity and access management, networking constructs, and compartment-based governance. This reduces operational overhead for teams standardizing on OCI compared with assembling storage from separate components.
Snapshots, backups, and cloning
The service provides point-in-time snapshots and backup capabilities that support recovery and environment duplication workflows. Volume cloning enables creating new volumes from existing data for dev/test or migration scenarios. These functions are managed within OCI, which simplifies administration relative to self-managed storage stacks.
Encryption and access controls
Data encryption at rest is supported, and access can be governed through OCI IAM policies and compartment boundaries. This helps organizations align storage access with broader cloud governance models. Key management can be handled through OCI services, supporting centralized control of encryption keys.
OCI-centric portability limits
The service is designed primarily for OCI workloads and operational models, which can increase friction for multi-cloud standardization. Features and APIs do not map one-to-one with other cloud providers’ block storage implementations. Organizations aiming for cloud-agnostic storage tooling may need additional abstraction layers.
Management features are scoped
Block Volumes focuses on block storage operations rather than providing a full data management suite across heterogeneous storage platforms. Advanced cross-environment data mobility, unified policy management, or deep NAS-style data services typically require additional products or services. This can increase architectural complexity for enterprises with mixed storage needs.
Cost and performance tuning complexity
Achieving the desired cost/performance profile can require selecting appropriate performance settings, sizing, and backup/snapshot retention policies. Misconfiguration can lead to higher spend or unmet latency/throughput expectations. Teams may need monitoring and governance practices to keep usage aligned with workload requirements.
Plan & Pricing
Pricing model: Pay-as-you-go Unit storage price: $0.0255 per GB per month (storage capacity, retail). Performance pricing (Volume Performance Units / VPU): Performance is charged as VPU per GB per month. Pricing increments are expressed per 10 VPU/GB steps in Oracle's pricing UI (10 VPU = $0.017/GB-month, 20 VPU = $0.034/GB-month, etc.). The common configuration examples shown by Oracle:
- Lower Cost (0 VPU/GB): $0.0255 per GB/month (storage only).
- Balanced (10 VPU/GB): $0.0255 (storage) + $0.017 (performance) = $0.0425 per GB/month.
- Higher Performance (20 VPU/GB): $0.0255 + $0.034 = $0.0595 per GB/month.
- Ultra-High Performance (30 VPU/GB): $0.0255 + $0.051 = $0.0765 per GB/month. (Oracle publishes additional VPU increments up to 120 VPU/GB with proportional performance and pricing increases.)
Example cost: Oracle example: a 1 TB volume with 100,000 IOPS (example in Oracle blog) = $25.50/month for storage + $68/month for performance = $93.50/month (illustrative).
Notes & billing details:
- Usage is measured using "Gigabyte storage capacity per month" and "Gigabyte performance units per month". Users are charged for a minimum of 1 minute; beyond 1 minute measurement is tracked per second and prorated.
- Performance is configurable per-volume (elastic slider) in 10-VPU increments up to 120 VPU/GB.
- Oracle provides a Cost Estimator on the official pricing page to calculate costs by region/currency.
Seller details
Oracle Corporation
Austin, Texas, USA
1977
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https://www.oracle.com/
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