Providing extended file storage for applications

A computer program product comprising a non-transitory machine-readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by at least one programmable processor, cause the at least one programmable processor to perform operations comprising:

• at deployment, receiving a deployment request, for using file storage service in a cloud application, the deployment request further comprising information identifying a local folder and a mode of storage:
• receiving a start request to ran the cloud application;
• allocating an application virtual machine to the cloud application;
• extracting metadata relating to the deployment request and determining that the metadata specifies file storage usage for the cloud application;
• identifying a block level storage volume and attaching the block level storage volume to the application virtual machine;
• mapping the identified block level storage volume to the local folder identified in the stored metadata;
• and
• starting the application virtual machine running the cloud application and accessing the block level storage volume mapped to the local folder of the cloud application for performing read/write operation.

A system operating in a communication network, comprising:

• a computer comprising a memory to store a program code, and a processor to execute the program code to:
• at deployment, receive a deployment request, for using file storage service in a cloud application, the deployment request further comprising information identifying a local folder and a mode of storage;
• store metadata relating to file storage usage in the deployment request in a persistent storage;
• receive a start request to run the cloud application;
• allocate an application virtual machine to the cloud application;
• extract the stored metadata and determining that the metadata specifies file storage usage for the cloud application;
• identify a block level storage volume and attaching the block level storage volume to the application virtual machine;
• map the identified block level storage volume to the local folder identified in the stored metadata;
• and
• start the application virtual machine running the cloud application and access the block level storage volume mapped to the local folder of the cloud application for performing read/write operation.