Object storage is a data-storage architecture that exposes a flat namespace of opaque binary objects, each addressed by a string key, accessed over HTTP. Unlike a filesystem, there are no real folders (only key prefixes that look like folders), no in-place edits, and no POSIX semantics like locking or atomic rename. Each object carries metadata as HTTP headers and is replicated for durability behind the scenes. Object storage is the right choice for backups, large media, log archives, machine-learning datasets, and any large-blob workload where you do not need filesystem semantics.

In a self-hosting context

Self-hosted object storage is most often used as a backup target or as the "uploads" bucket for an application. MinIO is the heavyweight choice with the broadest feature set (multi-tenancy, IAM, lifecycle rules); Garage is the lightweight 3-node-cluster choice from Deuxfleurs; SeaweedFS sits in between with extra small-file optimizations. All three are S3-compatible, so they slot in wherever you would otherwise use AWS S3 or a managed CDN-edge bucket like Cloudflare.