Item: IBM Cloud File Storage
Rating: 7
Author: Nicolas Hubert

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

IBM Cloud File Storage is being used to store large amounts of data across the organization. We use it to retrieve data easily and store it in different chunks. It is not used by all departments, just IT-related departments, and mostly by engineers. It addresses problems related to big data, data processing, and analysis.

Pros and Cons

Adjustable/extensible volume of stored data - You can really scale up.
You pay for what you use and it is very transparent.

Hard to master because of a lot of different functions.
Documentation is not so helpful.

Return on Investment

Huge time gain.
Large learning curve.

Alternatives Considered

Amazon Elastic File System (EFS), Igloo, Google Cloud Storage and Cyberduck

We selected IBM Cloud File Storage because of the company's reputation as a good provider of cloud file storage solutions and more generally, my company at that time relied heavily on IBM software. We hesitated a little bit with Amazon EFS which had some key features that IBM did not have, but all things considered, IBM was our best alternative.

Key Insights

Do you think IBM Cloud File Storage delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with IBM Cloud File Storage's feature set?

Yes

Did IBM Cloud File Storage live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of IBM Cloud File Storage go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy IBM Cloud File Storage again?

Other Software Used

Apache Spark, Apache Spark MLib, IBM Analytics for Apache Spark

Likelihood to Recommend

IBM Cloud File Storage is well suited for storing and retrieving data in large organizations. In smaller organizations, I would recommend choosing another solution that is lighter and easier to administrate.
For example, I had to retrieve all the financial transactions from Jan 2018 to August 2018 that had some specific features, so that I could run my ML algorithms on it. It was pretty quick to retrieve that data even though it was stored in different locations.

Implementation Rating

Support Rating

I just had one issue requiring contacting the support. People were very friendly and helpful. I cannot rate better because I have not been exposed to other similar situations (just had one single issue in 6 months), and cannot rate lower because this proves that IBM is trustworthy. I think it is fair.

Currently the best cloud file option on the market

Overall Satisfaction with IBM Cloud File Storage