Hot Storage vs Cold Storage: What’s the Difference?

For video production, film, and media teams, access to secure storage that allows easy access to data is critical. But with so many different types available, which shared storage option should you choose?

Two key categories of storage are hot and cold storage. Hot storage is useful for applications that require fast and frequent access to data, whereas cold storage is designed for data that’s is accessed infrequently.

Let’s dive into the differences between the two types of storage, the pros and cons of each, their use cases, and how to decide which one is right for you.

• What is Hot Storage?
  • Use cases of hot storage
  • Benefits of hot storage
  • Disadvantages of hot storage
  • Hot storage options
• What is Cold Storage?
  • Use cases for cold storage
  • Benefits of cold storage
  • Disadvantages of cold storage
  • Cold storage options
• Hot Storage vs. Cold Storage: Head-to-Head Comparison
• Why You Need Both Cold and Hot Storage
• MASV: Easy Large File Sharing to Multiple Storage Options

What is Hot Storage?

For mission-critical applications that require access to data quickly and frequently, hot storage is the way to go. To facilitate its high speeds and near-immediate data access hot storage typically uses the latest drives, fastest transport protocols, and is often physically closer to users.

Hot storage is also generally more expensive than cold storage, at least when it comes to storage costs.

Use cases for hot storage

When you’re working with high-definition files and footage, whether it be for video editing, animation, game development, streaming, live broadcasting, or any other use case requiring the manipulation of large files, you need storage that can read and write archivos grandes quickly and without lag.

For example, in a post-production house, video editors access media files frequently and require immediate access to them so they can do their jobs efficiently.

Hot storage can also adequately support active databases which are frequently updated and queried. Because they’re designed for real-time operations and applications, active databases allow for immediate data processing, high transaction throughput, and fast response times.

Benefits of hot storage

• Easy access to data since it gets stored near the source (lower chance of lagging).
• Lower data access and retrieval costs than cold storage.
• Users can scale resources on demand.
• Supports intensive workloads that need instant responses (such as applying visual effects and color grading).

Disadvantages of hot storage

• Requires higher initial investment (if using on-prem hot storage).
• Higher maintenance costs (if using on-prem hot storage).
• Susceptible to data corruption because of high read/write activity (if using on-prem hot storage).
• Higher energy consumption (if using on-prem hot storage).
• Vulnerable to breaches and hacks due to frequent access.
• More expensive storage costs than cold storage (in the cloud).

Hot storage options

• SSDs (solid state drives): Newer types of disks that offer high performance and low latency, which makes them suitable for multitasking. They store data on flash memory. There are no moving parts so SSDs aren’t as susceptible to physical damage or mechanical failure.

• High-performance HDDs (hard disk drives): Not as fast as SSDs but cheaper and with relatively high performance and storage space. Use mechanical spinning disks to read and write data. Primarily because of their moving parts, most HDDs have a lifespan of just three to five years.
• Hot cloud storage services: Microsoft’s Azure Blob Storage (Hot Blob Tier), AWS S3 Standard, Wasabi Hot Cloud Storage, and Google Cloud Storage Standard are examples of cloud hot storage classes that require no CapEx or physical space to implement.

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What is Cold Storage?

Cold storage is used for infrequently accessed (IA) data. Cold data could remain dormant for extended periods of time—in some cases, even indefinitely. It’s designed for archivo, copias de seguridad, historical data, and long-term storage of data that does not need to be retrieved quickly or frequently.

As a result, cold storage provides lower performance while prioritizing durability and cost-effectiveness.

Use cases of cold storage

Cold storage is ideal for applications that don’t require fast retrieval, like storing backups and archives of data such as raw footage, completed projects, and old content. Certain projects may also need to be retained for legal or compliance reasons, potential future changes, or to have a record of the project’s development.

While cold storage is typically meant for infrequently accessed data, there could be times when you do need access to it. That could be a problem, depending on how quickly you need the data: Keep in mind that cold storage data retrieval costs more and takes longer (anywhere from a few minutes, to hours, to even a few days).

For these reasons, IT admins should ensure that only specific individuals have permissions to access and save data in cold storage: if an everyday user saves a trove of hot data in cold storage it can be expensive (and time-consuming) to retrieve it.

Benefits of cold storage

• Cost-effective storage solution for large volumes of data that are accessed infrequently, like archival data.
• Helps organizations adhere to regulatory compliance.
• Offers solutions for reliable, long-term data preservation.
• Allows for disaster recovery in case of corruption or data loss in primary storage.
• Consumes less energy, which means lower overall energy costs (if using physical cold storage).
• Often more secure than hot storage due to infrequent access, fewer users, and slower data retrieval.

Disadvantages of cold storage

• Costs more than hot storage for data retrieval.
• Data retrieval takes longer (sometimes significantly longer).
• More complex data access.

Cold storage options

• Cold cloud storage services: AWS Glacier, Google Coldline, Azure Cool Blob Storage.
• Tape libraries: Reads/writes data on LTO tape stored in an archive. Used for large-scale archiving and backups. Very cost-effective offline storage option for large volumes of data.
• Optical disks: Examples include DVDs and Blu-ray discs. Inexpensive but offers limited capacity per disk and slower access. Ideal for small-scale archiving of media.

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Why Media Pros Need Both Cold Storage and Hot Storage

Because both cold and hot data storage offer different benefits, you can get the best of both worlds when you combine hot storage vs. cold storage in your storage workflows.

Depending on what type of data you’re managing, using both types of storage will optimize your team’s post-production workflow and reduce overall storage costs:

• Use hot storage for mission-critical applications that you carry out regularly, like editing, applying effects, and rendering. That way you can complete your projects on time without having to pay high costs for each transfer or every time you access data. Hot storage requires a higher initial investment and maintenance fees.
• For important data that you need to keep in storage for extended periods of time, use a cold storage solution. It’s designed for situations that require infrequent data access, like creating backups, storing historical data, and archiving. Cold storage has higher access fees.