Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) vs. IBM Cloud Object Storage

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Amazon S3
Score 8.6 out of 10
N/A
Amazon S3 is a cloud-based object storage service from Amazon Web Services. It's key features are storage management and monitoring, access management and security, data querying, and data transfer.N/A
IBM Cloud Object Storage
Score 9.1 out of 10
N/A
IBM Cloud Object Storage is an IBM Cloud product in the endpoint backup and IaaS categories. It is commonly used for data archiving and backup, for web and mobile applications, and as scalable, persistent storage for analytics.
$0
per month
Pricing
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)IBM Cloud Object Storage
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
One-Rate Plan
As low as USD $12/TB a month
per month
Standard Plan
Free up to 5GB—no minimum fee, pay only for what you use
per month
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Amazon S3IBM Cloud Object Storage
Free Trial
NoNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoYes
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
Additional DetailsThe One-Rate and Standard service plans for Cloud Object Storage include resiliency options, flexible data classes and built-in security. Pricing is based on the choice of location, storage class and resiliency choice.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)IBM Cloud Object Storage
Considered Both Products
Amazon S3
Chose Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
Amazon S3 provides a variety of tools for uploading short and large objects to the cloud. AWS S3 is a key-value store, one of the major categories of NoSQL databases used for accumulating voluminous, mutating, unstructured, or semistructured data. S3 object retrieval is fast. …
IBM Cloud Object Storage
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Amazon S3 service is also a good option, but based on features it provides compared with IBM Cloud Object Storage, it is less suitable. IBM Cloud Object Storage [is] also integrated with more services, like IBM Cloud SQL and IBM Aspera, which AWS does not provide to transfer …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Amazon S3 is a great service to safely back up your data where redundancy is guaranteed, and the cost is fair. In the past I have used Amazon S3 for data that we backup and hope we never need to access, but in the case of a catastrophic or even small slip of the finger with the …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Amazon S3 has a more complex pricing model. It charges as per the requests, which will be more costly for us compared to IBM cloud object storage. The safety of our data is the main focus, and this is guaranteed with IBM.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
We compared IBM Cloud Object Storage with Amazon S3 and chose IBM mainly because of its better cost control across regions, smooth integration with our existing IBM tools, and strong built-in security.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Mostly cost because most of them deliver a similar product and the decision for a hyperscaler (when you do not plan to use Multi Cloud) was not solely based on the object storage offering. Moreover, other components as K8s/postgres and the overall picture inclunding consulting …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Along with IBM Watson for AI and machine learning, IBM Aspera for fast data transport, and IBM Cloud SQL Query for data analysis, IBM Cloud Object Storage works seamlessly with other IBM Cloud services. For research initiatives that call for a variety of tools and services, …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
We selected IBM Cloud Object Storage against S3 for following reasons:1.
1. We already use a lot of IBM's cloud services, IBM Cloud Object Storage would have been easier to manage.
2. It is really cost effective with the features it brings in.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Well for my self, the IBM Cloud Object Storage is required for the Coursera course and fee to use without credit card information, therefore, it is a no brainer for me to use as an individual. The IBM Cloud Object Storage has all cloud computing services that the major …
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
It's easy, free to use for a limited time.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
IBM storage is easy to use for someone who has some prior experience with cloud services. It provides a fluid interface which is detailed and helps navigate.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
As I have mentioned earlier IBM provides free 25GB storage to start with. So, I was experimenting with a new solution to implement in our product. Therefore, it is good to start with a free plan and reduce costs. Then, I found IBM COS as a good fit for my projects.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
It's hard to compete with S3 when they were the first to do it. If the UI/CLI were as intuitive as AWS, I would rate it equal but unfortunately, I tend to use S3-compatible tools.
Chose IBM Cloud Object Storage
Above listed do not provide free trial at all. IBM provided me with free lite plan so we can try it first for free. And I think this is the best thing about IBM.
Features
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)IBM Cloud Object Storage
Data Center Backup
Comparison of Data Center Backup features of Product A and Product B
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
8.8
11 Ratings
2% above category average
IBM Cloud Object Storage
-
Ratings
Universal recovery8.710 Ratings00 Ratings
Instant recovery8.210 Ratings00 Ratings
Recovery verification8.37 Ratings00 Ratings
Business application protection8.67 Ratings00 Ratings
Multiple backup destinations8.810 Ratings00 Ratings
Incremental backup identification9.24 Ratings00 Ratings
Backup to the cloud8.911 Ratings00 Ratings
Deduplication and file compression8.85 Ratings00 Ratings
Snapshots9.17 Ratings00 Ratings
Flexible deployment9.111 Ratings00 Ratings
Management dashboard7.910 Ratings00 Ratings
Platform support8.710 Ratings00 Ratings
Retention options9.67 Ratings00 Ratings
Encryption9.78 Ratings00 Ratings
Enterprise Backup
Comparison of Enterprise Backup features of Product A and Product B
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
8.7
11 Ratings
2% above category average
IBM Cloud Object Storage
-
Ratings
Continuous data protection9.410 Ratings00 Ratings
Replication8.810 Ratings00 Ratings
Operational reporting and analytics8.111 Ratings00 Ratings
Malware protection8.64 Ratings00 Ratings
Multi-location capabilities9.011 Ratings00 Ratings
Ransomware Recovery8.01 Ratings00 Ratings
Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS)
Comparison of Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) features of Product A and Product B
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)
-
Ratings
IBM Cloud Object Storage
8.7
155 Ratings
6% above category average
Service-level Agreement (SLA) uptime00 Ratings6.1143 Ratings
Dynamic scaling00 Ratings9.8143 Ratings
Elastic load balancing00 Ratings8.9140 Ratings
Monitoring tools00 Ratings8.8144 Ratings
Security controls00 Ratings9.8149 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)IBM Cloud Object Storage
Small Businesses
Cove Data Protection
Cove Data Protection
Score 9.8 out of 10
DigitalOcean Droplets
DigitalOcean Droplets
Score 9.3 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.6 out of 10
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
Enterprises
Bacula Enterprise
Bacula Enterprise
Score 9.6 out of 10
SAP on IBM Cloud
SAP on IBM Cloud
Score 9.0 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)IBM Cloud Object Storage
Likelihood to Recommend
9.0
(77 ratings)
9.4
(158 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(1 ratings)
9.1
(2 ratings)
Usability
8.4
(15 ratings)
7.3
(5 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
9.8
(21 ratings)
9.1
(8 ratings)
Online Training
-
(0 ratings)
7.3
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
5.8
(4 ratings)
User Testimonials
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service)IBM Cloud Object Storage
Likelihood to Recommend
Amazon AWS
Amazon S3 is a great service to safely backup your data where redundancy is guaranteed and the cost is fair. We use Amazon S3 for data that we backup and hope we never need to access but in the case of a catastrophic or even small slip of the finger with the delete command we know our data and our client's data is safely backed up by Amazon S3. Transferring data into Amazon S3 is free but transferring data out has an associated, albeit low, cost per GB. This needs to be kept in mind if you plan on transferring out a lot of data frequently. There may be other cost effective options although Amazon S3 prices are really low per GB. Transferring 150TB would cost approximately $50 per month.
Read full review
IBM
In my experience, IBM Cloud Object Storage is well suited for projects like the one I am working on. This includes the use of natural language classification and the uploading of data to train a machine learning model for tag suggestions based on a body of text. Using IBM Cloud Object Storage has helped with this greatly. IBM Cloud Object Storage has also been great for Big Data Analytics thanks to its scalablilty and ease of use for large datasets. Alongside IBM Watson and our team's internal big data tools we've managed to process and analyze data more efficiently, leading to key insights that have driven business value for our clients.
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Pros
Amazon AWS
  • Fantastic developer API, including AWS command line and library utilities.
  • Strong integration with the AWS ecosystem, especially with regards to access permissions.
  • It's astoundingly stable- you can trust it'll stay online and available for anywhere in the world.
  • Its static website hosting feature is a hidden gem-- it provides perhaps the cheapest, most stable, most high-performing static web hosting available in PaaS.
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IBM
  • IBM Cloud Object Storage is an excellent choice for disaster recovery and backup solutions. Its high durability and geographic redundancy ensure that our backup data is safe and can be quickly restored in case of a disaster. This capability is crucial for maintaining our business continuity and minimizing downtime. We have deployed our loads in an IKS cluster distributed in 3 different AZs with stateful data allocated in COS.
  • We have a video streaming application and need to store and deliver a vast library of video content to millions of users worldwide, so we store our data in COS, which is cheap and reliable.
  • We have a bunch of data that must be analyzed and stored in datasets for fraud detection, risk management, and customer insights. In these cases, this data is moved from Onprem to IBM Cloud so we can use cheap storage like COS.
Read full review
Cons
Amazon AWS
  • Web console can be very confusing and challenging to use, especially for new users
  • Bucket policies are very flexible, but the composability of the security rules can be very confusing to get right, often leading to security rules in use on buckets other than what you believe they are
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IBM
  • Searching and retrieving—full-text search or metadata search—is one of the significant areas of improvement. It isn't easy to search for data with this.
  • Integration with other IBM cloud services is trickier. For example, integrating this with API Connect to access the data from API will be difficult for users.
  • Support - I think you should have more support community.
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Likelihood to Renew
Amazon AWS
Due to princing, availability and scalability.
Read full review
IBM
because it is a robust, safe and flexible product
Read full review
Usability
Amazon AWS
It is tricky to get it all set up correctly with policies and getting the IAM settings right. There is also a lot of lifecycle config you can do in terms of moving data to cold/glacier storage. It is also not to be confused with being a OneDrive or SharePoint replacement, they each have their own place in our environment, and S3 is used more by the IT team and accessed by our PHP applications. It is not necessarily used by an average everyday user for storing their pictures or documents, etc.
Read full review
IBM
For my use cases, it has been a very smooth experience. Even my new colleagues have been able to get on top of things very quickly. This shows how easy it is to work with
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
We rarely face downtime or access issues with IBM Cloud Object Storage. It’s mostly available when we need it, even during peak hours or heavy data loads.
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Performance
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
I would give it a 9 because it works smooth with our AI and analytics tools, no major slowdown. Pages and dashboards load fine most of the time, and reports finish in decent time even when data is heavy.
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Support Rating
Amazon AWS
AWS has always been quick to resolve any support ticket raised. S3 is no exception. We have only ever used it once to get a clarification regarding the costs involved when data is transferred between S3 and other AWS services or the public internet. We got a response from AWS support team within a day.
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IBM
I have been working in IT sector for more than 15 years. I have worked with various vendors. IBM's sales team, support team have been really helpful. After we start to use their product, their UX design team also contacted us to get feedback from us. They are really interested about our experience.
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Online Training
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
I just researching and applying the tools on their platforms to ensure a good learning path, based on my needs. Reading the documentation related with resources, tools. Is too big, but I am trying to know more about it every day. It is a good way to know more about their resources. A new way to attract new customers. At the end of the day, we are all involved in improvement and automation of our tasks and resources for customers and end-users.
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Implementation Rating
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
Yes Our organization used IBM professional services to implement IBM object storage because of its data consistency and multiple way to upload and download data and its encryption security features. Also that its brand matter for the any organization to secure the layer and storage. It sis also verify that application and system are compatibale for this product
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Alternatives Considered
Amazon AWS
Overall, we found that Amazon S3 provided a lot of backend features Google Cloud Storage (GCS) simply couldn't compare to. GCS was way more expensive and really did not live up to it. In terms of setup, Google Cloud Storage may have Amazon S3 beat, however, as it is more of a pseudo advanced version of Google Drive, that was not a hard feat for it to achieve. Overall, evaluating GCS, in comparison to S3, was an utter disappointment.
Read full review
IBM
Amazon S3 is a great service to safely back up your data where redundancy is guaranteed, and the cost is fair. In the past I have used Amazon S3 for data that we backup and hope we never need to access, but in the case of a catastrophic or even small slip of the finger with the delete command, we know our data and our client's data is safely backed up by Amazon S3. Amazon S3 service is a good option, but based on the features it provides compared with IBM Cloud Object Storage, it is less suitable. IBM Cloud Object Storage is also integrated with more services, like IBM Cloud SQL and IBM Aspera, which AWS does not provide to transfer files at maximum speed in the world.
Read full review
Scalability
Amazon AWS
No answers on this topic
IBM
Scaling up the number of users can lead to significant increases in licensing costs, which, while not a technical limitation, can be a practical constraint for some organizations
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Return on Investment
Amazon AWS
  • It practically eliminated some real heavy storage servers from our premises and reduced maintenance cost.
  • The excellent durability and reliability make sure the return of money you invested in.
  • If the objects which are not active or stale, one needs to remove them. Those objects keep adding cost to each billing cycle. If you are handling a really big infrastructure, sometimes this creates quite a huge bill for preserving un-necessary objects/documents.
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IBM
  • This allows us to recommend a platform to our clients that will quickly help them create new, efficient business processes with very little development.
  • This saves clients hours and days of manual analysis of images, allowing the system to do the work when attaching Object Storage to models.
  • There is a learning curve in utilizing the storage and the modeling, but once up and running, it works well during deployment.
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ScreenShots

IBM Cloud Object Storage Screenshots

Screenshot of Cloud Object Storage set upScreenshot of storage bucket creationScreenshot of the Access Management interfaceScreenshot of the interface to create, add and management of Storage BucketsScreenshot of data uploadingScreenshot of usage details