Cloud Storage offers three folder types: simulated folders, managed folders, and folders in buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled. Each type has different interfaces, characteristics, and semantics, so knowing the differences helps you choose how to organize objects and manage access to them.
Folder types depend on the bucket structure. Cloud Storage buckets have either a flat namespace or a true file system structure. In buckets with a flat namespace, objects are stored as a flat list. In buckets with a file system structure, objects are indexed by actual directories.
Simulated folders
Simulated folders provide a simulated directory structure in flat
namespace buckets. Simulated folders don't exist as actual resources in
Cloud Storage. Instead, these folders are merely simulated by object name
prefixes, delimited by a forward slash / in the object's name. Simulated
folders create a visual hierarchy of your objects in the Google Cloud console and
the Google Cloud CLI.
Folders in buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled
In buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled, you can create real folders that exist as actual resources within Cloud Storage. These folders can contain objects or child folders, and they can be managed by operations such as renaming or listing. The hierarchical structure and folder management operations improve performance, consistency, navigation, and management for file-oriented and data-intensive workloads.
For more information about folders, see About folders in buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled.
Managed folders
Managed folders let you apply Identity and Access Management (IAM) roles to groups of objects at once, providing more granular security and control over your data. Managed folders are an actual resource within Cloud Storage.
You can use managed folders in flat namespace buckets or buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled. In buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled, a managed folder acts as a specialized access control layer that must be explicitly created with the same name as the corresponding folder to apply IAM permissions. For more detail, see Access control for folders.
To get started using managed folders, see Create managed folders.
What's next
- Learn how to create buckets with hierarchical namespace enabled.