Object storage offered by Google Cloud. Alongside Amazon S3, ADLS and Blob Storage, it is a source Auto Loader can ingest from.
Also called Google Cloud Storage.
Read more: Microsoft Learn
In the Ultra Transcenders books
Each book explains GCS in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.
Terms in this definition
- General-purpose v1
The older storage account kind (
Storage), which lacks access tiers, Archive and premium file shares and retires on 13 October 2026. Converting to ZRS requires first upgrading to GPv2, a one-way change. - Amazon S3
The object storage service in Amazon's cloud. Through a OneLake shortcut, an S3 bucket's data can show up in a Microsoft Fabric lakehouse with no copy made, though such shortcuts can only be read from.
- ADLS
Paths beginning
abfss://point into this: Azure Storage with the hierarchical namespace switched on. In Unity Catalog it is typically the object store under both external locations and managed storage. - Blob storage
Azure's object store for unstructured content like images and video; a single block blob can reach roughly 190.7 TiB.
- Auto Loader
The
cloudFilesStructured Streaming source, which picks up new files from cloud storage or volumes as they arrive. Its checkpoint records progress so each file is processed exactly once, and it can infer and evolve the schema.
Related terms
- Shortcut caching
Cuts egress charges between clouds by keeping local copies, for 1-28 days, of files fetched via GCS, S3, S3-compatible or on-premises gateway shortcuts. It is switched on per workspace; anything above 1 GB is skipped.