Filestore
Fully managed NFS file storage (Network Attached Storage) - a shared POSIX file system you mount on Compute Engine VMs or GKE clusters. Unlike Cloud Storage (object, reached by API) Filestore gives applications a real file-system mount point, so it fits lift-and-shift apps that expect files and directories, latency-sensitive workloads, and shared scratch space for HPC or rendering.
Pick a service tier by performance and capacity needs (Basic HDD/SSD for general file sharing, higher tiers for more throughput and scale). Performance and capacity tune independently, which is what gives file-based workloads predictable, repeatable speed.
If the workload needs a mounted file system / NFS / shared directory across VMs, it's Filestore. If it needs to store and serve blobs by key/URL with no file system, it's Cloud Storage.
- NFSv3 - supports any NFSv3-compatible client; no plug-ins or client-side software to install or maintain.
- Scale-out performance and hundreds of terabytes of capacity per instance.
- File locking built in, so multiple clients can safely share the same files.
- Grow or shrink an instance's capacity or performance as needs change.
- Mount points for both Compute Engine and GKE.
Use cases
Any workload that expects a POSIX file system shared across many machines.
| Use case | Why Filestore fits |
|---|---|
| Application migration | On-prem enterprise apps that need a file-system interface lift-and-shift without rewrites. |
| Media rendering | Render fleets of Compute Engine VMs all mount one share, so artists collaborate on the same files. |
| Electronic Design Automation (EDA) | Batch jobs across thousands of cores with large memory needs; files stay universally accessible. |
| Data analytics | Low-latency file ops for financial/environmental models; a persistent shared layer avoids loading data to local drives. |
| Genomics processing | Billions of data points per genome need speed, scale, and predictable pricing for the performance. |
| Web content | Hosting providers and CMSes (e.g. WordPress) serve shared web content from one file system. |