{"id":111556,"date":"2024-09-03T09:40:28","date_gmt":"2024-09-03T16:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/?p=111556"},"modified":"2024-09-15T17:05:23","modified_gmt":"2024-09-16T00:05:23","slug":"three-surprising-factors-that-affect-cloud-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/three-surprising-factors-that-affect-cloud-performance\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Surprising Factors that Affect Cloud Performance"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1440\" height=\"820\" src=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/bb-bh-Five-Surprising-Factors-That-Affect-Cloud-Performance.png\" alt=\"A decorative image showing a cloud and data graphs. \" class=\"wp-image-111557\" srcset=\"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/bb-bh-Five-Surprising-Factors-That-Affect-Cloud-Performance.png 1440w, https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/bb-bh-Five-Surprising-Factors-That-Affect-Cloud-Performance-300x171.png 300w, https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/bb-bh-Five-Surprising-Factors-That-Affect-Cloud-Performance-1024x583.png 1024w, https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/bb-bh-Five-Surprising-Factors-That-Affect-Cloud-Performance-768x437.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1440px) 100vw, 1440px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:15px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>When you think about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/cloud-storage-performance-the-metrics-that-matter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">cloud performance<\/a>, metrics like latency and throughput are probably the first things that come to mind. We covered those metrics pretty extensively <a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/navigating-cloud-storage-what-is-latency-and-why-does-it-matter\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/whats-the-diff-bandwidth-vs-throughput\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">here<\/a>. So, today, I\u2019m walking through some factors that affect cloud performance that may not get talked about as often, including:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The size of your files.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The number of parts you upload or download.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/object-file-block-storage-guide\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Block<\/a> (part) size.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>These factors may not be \u201csurprising\u201d per se especially if you remember the pain of trying to download The Matrix over dial up. But they <em>are<\/em> all things that you should consider (and that you have more control over) when thinking about cloud performance overall.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Let\u2019s dig in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">1. The size of your files<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>This one is pretty obvious. Larger files take longer because they require more data to be transferred. If you have a 10Mbps upload connection, a 1GB file will take approximately 800 seconds (13 minutes and 20 seconds) to upload, whereas a 100MB file will take about 80 seconds (a minute and 20 seconds). Most enterprise-grade internet connections offer higher upload speeds, but 10Mbps makes the math approachable for the sake of argument.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Small files\u2014that is, those less than 5GB\u2014can be uploaded in a single API call. (Note: this can vary based on cloud storage provider and configuration.) Larger files up to 10TB can be uploaded as \u201cparts\u201d in multiple API calls. Each part has to be a minimum of 5MB and a maximum of 5GB.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>You\u2019ll notice that there is quite an overlap here! For uploading files between 5MB and 5GB, is it better to upload them in a single API call, or split them into parts? What is the optimum part size? For backup applications, which typically split all data into equally sized blocks, storing each block as a file, what is the optimum block size? As with many questions, the answer is: it depends.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">2. The number of parts you upload or download<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Each API call incurs a more-or-less fixed overhead due to latency. For a 1GB file, assuming a single thread of execution, uploading all 1GB in a single API call will be faster than 10 API calls each uploading a 100MB part, since those additional nine API calls each incur some latency overhead. So, bigger is better, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">3. Block (part) size<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Not necessarily, and that brings us to part size. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/increasing-thread-count-useful-in-sheets-and-cloud-storage-speed\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Multi-threading<\/a>, as mentioned above, affords us the opportunity to upload multiple parts simultaneously, which improves performance\u2014but there are trade-offs. Typically, each part must be stored in memory as it is uploaded, so more threads means more memory consumption. If the number of threads multiplied by the part size exceeds available memory, then either the application will fail with an out of memory error, or data will be swapped to disk, reducing performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Downloading data offers even more flexibility, since applications can specify <em>any<\/em> <em>portion<\/em> of the file to download in each API call. Whether uploading or downloading, there is a maximum number of threads that will drive throughput to consume all of the available bandwidth. Exceeding this maximum will consume more memory, but provide no performance benefit.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>So, what to do to get the best performance possible for your use case?\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Simple: Customize your settings<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Most backup and file transfer tools allow you to configure the number of threads and the amount of data to be transferred per API call, whether that\u2019s block size or part size. If you are writing your own application, you should allow for these parameters to be configured. When it comes to deployment, some experimentation may be required to achieve maximum throughput given available memory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The big takeaway: When it comes to cloud performance, the metrics you need to care about and the performance you actually need are highly dependent on your use case, your own infrastructure, your workload, and all the network connections between your infrastructure and the cloud provider as well. So, when you\u2019re deciding how to store and use your data, it\u2019s worth taking some extra time to consider the above factors for optimum performance.&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There are several factors that can affect your performance metrics when working in the cloud. Here are a few of the surprising ones. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":175,"featured_media":111557,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,434,438],"tags":[468],"class_list":["post-111556","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cloud-storage","category-featured-1","category-featured-cloud-storage","tag-b2cloud","entry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Three Surprising Factors that Affect Cloud Performance<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/three-surprising-factors-that-affect-cloud-performance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Surprising Factors that Affect Cloud Performance\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"There are several factors that can affect your performance metrics when working in the cloud. Here are a few of the surprising ones.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/three-surprising-factors-that-affect-cloud-performance\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Backblaze Blog | Cloud Storage &amp; Cloud Backup\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-09-03T16:40:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-09-16T00:05:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/bb-bh-Five-Surprising-Factors-That-Affect-Cloud-Performance.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"820\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kari Rivas\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@backblaze\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@backblaze\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kari Rivas\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Three Surprising Factors that Affect Cloud Performance","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/three-surprising-factors-that-affect-cloud-performance\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Three Surprising Factors that Affect Cloud Performance","og_description":"There are several factors that can affect your performance metrics when working in the cloud. 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Cloud Backup","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#organization","name":"Backblaze","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/backblaze_icon_transparent.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.backblaze.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/backblaze_icon_transparent.png?fit=512%2C512&ssl=1","width":512,"height":512,"caption":"Backblaze"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/backblaze","https:\/\/x.com\/backblaze","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/Backblaze","https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Backblaze"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/cd16e363fb44fc4234121fca85ded1d2","name":"Kari Rivas","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Kari-Rivas-150x150.jpg","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Kari-Rivas-150x150.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Kari-Rivas-150x150.jpg","caption":"Kari Rivas"},"description":"As a Senior Product Marketing Manager, Kari Rivas leads backup and archive marketing at Backblaze, the leading cloud storage innovator delivering a modern alternative to traditional cloud providers. She works closely with IT professionals, managed service providers, and other businesses to ensure they never lose their valuable data. She received her MBA in 2010 and has spent 15 years in marketing, most notably in the education and SaaS spaces. Connect with her on LinkedIn.","url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/author\/kari\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/bb-bh-Five-Surprising-Factors-That-Affect-Cloud-Performance.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111556","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/175"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111556"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111556\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/111557"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111556"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111556"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backblazeprod.wpenginepowered.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111556"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}