I'm building an internal portal with shared folders for teams. What storage should back it?

For an internal portal with shared team folders, the best default is usually managed object storage plus an application layer, not a traditional file server.

Best fit for most cases

Use cloud object storage such as:

• Amazon S3
• Azure Blob Storage
• Google Cloud Storage

Why:

• Scales easily
• Durable and highly available
• Cheaper than running and maintaining file servers
• Works well if your portal stores documents, images, exports, attachments, and versioned files
• Easier to add lifecycle rules, audit logs, encryption, and backups

When to use something else

If users need:

• Windows file sharing semantics
• Mapped drive access
• Real-time file locking/editing from desktop apps
• SMB/NFS network drive behavior

then use a managed file service, such as:

• Amazon EFS / FSx
• Azure Files
• Google Filestore

Practical recommendation

For an internal portal, I’d usually choose:

• Object storage for file content
• Database for metadata, permissions, folder structure, audit trail
• Your portal handles access control and exposes downloads/uploads

This gives you better control over team-based sharing than relying on folder permissions alone.

Good architecture pattern

• Store each file in object storage
• Keep:
  • file name
  • folder/team ID
  • owner
  • ACL/permissions
  • version
  • checksum
  • created/updated timestamps
• Serve access through signed URLs or a backend proxy
• Encrypt at rest and in transit
• Enable versioning and retention policies if needed

Rule of thumb

• Portal/document library → object storage
• Shared drive replacement → managed file system
• Heavy collaboration in Office docs → consider integrating SharePoint/OneDrive or equivalent

If you want, I can recommend a specific storage stack based on your cloud provider and whether users need browser-only access or also desktop file access.