What are Cloud Disks in Alibaba Cloud primarily used for?

Cloud Disks in Alibaba Cloud are primarily designed to serve as virtual disks that provide additional storage for Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instances. These disks attach to ECS instances and can be used to store various types of data, including operating systems, applications, and user files. This functionality allows users to increase the storage capacity of their virtual machines easily and manage data more effectively.

Using Cloud Disks enhances the flexibility and scalability of the resources in Alibaba Cloud. For instance, as application needs grow, users can attach additional Cloud Disks to their existing ECS instances without needing to reconfigure the entire infrastructure. This makes managing workloads more efficient and responsive to changing demands.

In contrast, while data backup and recovery, encryption, and database snapshots relate to cloud functionalities, they do not define the primary use case of Cloud Disks. These other functionalities might rely on Cloud Disks but are not its primary purpose; rather, they are features or services supporting broader data management needs.