As enterprises face exponential growth in unstructured data—from backups and logs to media and analytics—the need for scalable, reliable, and cost-effective storage becomes critical.
As enterprises face exponential growth in unstructured data—from backups and logs to media and analytics—the need for scalable, reliable, and cost-effective storage becomes critical. Object storage has become the architecture of choice for modern data workloads, particularly in on-premises environments where control, compliance, and cost-predictability are key.
This guide outlines the core architectural components and recommended hardware to build a production-ready object storage system on-premises.
Below are the key building blocks of a resilient object storage architecture:
1. Storage Backend (Data Plane)
The foundation of the system — responsible for storing object data and metadata reliably.
Responsibilities:
- Store and retrieve object content.
- Ensure durability through replication (e.g. RAID) or erasure coding.
- Handle failure recovery and rebalancing.
Hardware Recommendations:
|
Component |
Specs (Typical Starting Point) |
|
Storage Nodes |
3–100+ nodes depending on capacity and durability model |
|
Drives |
SATA/SAS HDDs for capacity; SSDs for metadata/journal |
|
Disk Layout |
12–36 drives per node; JBOD preferred |
|
Network |
Dual 10/25 GbE NICs per node (separate storage/public) |
|
CPU |
8–16 cores per node |
|
Memory |
64–128 GB per node |
2. Object Storage Service Gateway (API Layer)
The stateless service that exposes the S3-compatible API to users and applications.
Responsibilities:
- Handle object PUT/GET/DELETE requests.
- Authenticate users and enforce access policies.
- Translate API calls into storage backend operations.
Design Principles:
- Stateless — can be scaled horizontally.
- Deployed as separate services on dedicated nodes or shared infrastructure.
Hardware Recommendations:
|
Component |
Specs |
|
Gateway Nodes |
2–4+ nodes (scale with traffic) |
|
CPU |
8+ cores |
|
Memory |
32–64 GB |
|
Network |
10/25 GbE NICs |
|
Storage |
Local SSDs (optional; for logs/caching) |
3. Load Balancers (Access Distribution Layer)
Front-end layer that handles inbound client traffic and distributes it across multiple gateway nodes.
Responsibilities:
- Perform load balancing, health checks, and optional TLS termination.
- Route traffic to healthy API nodes.
- Ensure high availability at the network edge.
Options:
- HAProxy, Nginx, Envoy, or hardware appliances (e.g., F5).
- DNS round-robin or VIP failover (Keepalived/VRRP) for redundancy.
Hardware Recommendations:
|
Component |
Specs |
|
LB Nodes |
At least 2 for HA; and more for load balancing |
|
CPU |
4–8 cores |
|
Memory |
16–32 GB |
|
Network |
Dual 10 GbE NICs |
4. Control Plane (Cluster Management)
Manages cluster health, configuration, orchestration, and monitoring.
Responsibilities:
- Coordinate storage and gateway services.
- Monitor health and metrics.
- Provide dashboards, CLI/API access, and alerting.
Components:
- Cluster managers (e.g., monitor daemons)
- Dashboard and admin services
- Optionally integrates with orchestration tools (K8s, Ansible, etc.)
Hardware Recommendations:
|
Component |
Specs |
|
Controller Nodes |
3 nodes (for quorum/high availability) |
|
CPU |
4–8 cores |
|
Memory |
16–32 GB |
|
Storage |
SSDs (OS and logs) |
|
Network |
1–10 GbE |
5. Networking Layer
A robust, redundant network fabric is essential for both internal data replication and client access.
Best Practices:
- Use separate VLANs or interfaces for internal storage and client/API traffic.
- Redundant switches and bonded NICs.
- For erasure-coded pools, low latency matters more than bandwidth during recovery.
Network Fabric Guidance:
|
Type |
Min Specs (Per Node) |
|
Storage |
10 GbE (recommended) or higher |
|
Client/API |
10 GbE (or 1 GbE if low-volume) |