Glossary
Tiered Storage System
What is a tiered storage system?
In a tiered storage system, each storage tier is intended for specific types of data and has distinct performance characteristics, SLAs and pricing plans (with complex fee structures). Usually, tiered storage systems are optimized for three different classes of data: active data, active archive, and inactive archive.
Types of storage tiers
Hot storage: your most frequently accessed data, or active data, goes into a high-performing hot storage tier.
Warm storage: data you need to access semi-frequently, or an active archive, is placed in a warm storage tier that balances cost and performance.
Cold storage: archival data that you only need to access occasionally, or an inactive archive, into a low-cost, lower-performance cold storage tier.
Your data is warmer than you think
Cold storage may not be the right choice because that data you think is cold is actually fairly active. According to the 2025 Global Cloud Storage Index, only 19% of data stored in cloud object storage is considered cold, which the survey defined as “secondary storage for archive data accessed annually or less frequently, with expected performance limitations in terms of access.”
How is Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage better than a tiered storage system?
At Wasabi, we believe cloud storage should be simple. Unlike legacy cloud storage services with confusing storage tiers and convoluted pricing schemes, we provide a single, high-performing product—with predictable, affordable and straightforward pricing—that satisfies any cloud storage requirement. You can use Wasabi for any data storage class: active data, active archive and inactive archive.