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Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) vs Amazon S3 comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
8.2
Amazon EBS provides scalable, efficient cloud storage, boosting performance and ROI between 20% to 25%, eliminating hard disk needs.
Sentiment score
6.0
Amazon S3 provides financial benefits through cost-effective, scalable data storage, reducing staffing and overhead costs with its pricing model.
As a cloud storage option, it is flexible and cost-effective, eliminating the need for a permanent investment in hard disks.
Moving infrequently accessed data to cheaper classes like Glacier is beneficial for long-term storage at a lower cost.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Amazon EBS customer service is generally efficient but varies in quality and cost based on support plans.
Sentiment score
6.9
Amazon S3's customer service is generally positively reviewed for being responsive and knowledgeable, despite occasional response delays.
Enterprise support provides access to AWS developers 24/7.
They provide instant and chat support, addressing concerns in a timely manner.
Once subscribed, the support team is very responsive, connecting remotely to assist with troubleshooting.
I rate the technical support from Amazon for S3 a ten out of ten.
An engineer is assigned based on the severity of the issue.
The technical support for Amazon S3 is rated ten out of ten.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.1
Amazon EBS is praised for its scalability and efficiency, especially in database-heavy environments, despite some manual processes.
Sentiment score
8.4
Amazon S3 offers scalable, cost-effective storage with virtually unlimited capacity per bucket, though bucket limits might restrict some users.
Amazon EBS is easy to scale up or down as needed.
Vertical scaling can be achieved by adding additional volumes whenever the created storage is insufficient.
All cloud solutions permit scalability, and this is an important feature.
Data placed in an S3 bucket is replicated across availability zones in a region, ensuring scalability and availability.
The level of scalability allows storage to automatically scale on demand, without the need for manual intervention.
Amazon S3's automatic scaling has benefited me, as I don't need to plan storage requirements.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.8
Amazon EBS is highly rated for stability, ease of use, and reliable performance, with occasional regional connectivity issues.
Sentiment score
8.1
Amazon S3 offers reliable performance, minimal downtime, and high stability, though security vigilance is advised for data exposure.
AWS provides infrastructure stability like data centers, ensuring high stability.
I have never had problems with its stability.
If the server is stable, then EBS is stable.
There is zero latency or downtime.
Transitioning between S3 storage classes, like moving data from the standard class to Glacier or Glacier Deep Archive, has been challenging.
Amazon S3 is highly stable.
 

Room For Improvement

Amazon EBS faces challenges with performance, cost, scaling, latency, interface usability, and file system compatibility, impacting user experience.
Amazon S3 users seek improved interface, security, file management, integration, faster access, and simplified pricing for better usability.
Regarding EBS, if an instance is terminated, the volume is also deleted, which leads to data loss.
I would like EBS to have no limitations, similar to stream-like block storage, which can accommodate an unlimited amount of sales.
Deployment is not easy as it requires server downtime to map newly created volumes, impacting operations during additional volume additions.
An improvement could be associating the naming with personal accounts, allowing more familiar or desired names without conflicting with global conventions.
The practice of protecting data could be more streamlined or mandatory.
I would like to see an increase in the data upload limit, similar to DynamoDB, where there is no data limit.
 

Setup Cost

Amazon EBS pricing varies with optimization; higher costs offer performance and reliability, yet can be expensive compared to competitors.
Amazon S3 offers competitive and flexible pricing but can become costly with high data retrieval and additional services.
For SSD IOPS, you only pay $0.125 per gigabyte.
The pay-for-what-you-use model justifies the amount paid, with no extra or hidden charges.
Users are charged only for the data used, not for the allocated volume.
I've used the free tier and haven't been charged yet.
S3 offers multiple classes, allowing you to move data to cheaper classes for cost savings.
It is somewhat justified due to the benefits, but there is room for reconsideration.
 

Valuable Features

Amazon EBS provides scalable, secure, and affordable storage with high performance and flexibility, supporting diverse storage needs effectively.
Amazon S3 provides scalable, secure, and cost-effective storage with high performance, data management features, and AWS integration.
Amazon EBS is also scalable and provides high availability.
EBS provides vertical scaling options to add additional volumes when more storage is required.
Amazon EBS allows seamless changes to the instance type without affecting application availability.
Its stability and scalability are also impressive, as it allows for increased storage space according to demand.
I appreciate its capability to create static websites and integrate with services like CloudFront, EC2, and DynamoDB.
Security measures like encryption, access controls, and the block public access feature are also important.
 

Categories and Ranking

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block S...
Average Rating
8.6
Reviews Sentiment
7.4
Number of Reviews
33
Ranking in other categories
Cloud Storage (9th)
Amazon S3
Average Rating
8.8
Reviews Sentiment
7.2
Number of Reviews
81
Ranking in other categories
Public Cloud Storage Services (2nd)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Cloud Services solutions, they serve different purposes. Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) is designed for Cloud Storage and holds a mindshare of 2.1%, up 1.9% compared to last year.
Amazon S3, on the other hand, focuses on Public Cloud Storage Services, holds 11.5% mindshare, down 14.1% since last year.
Cloud Storage
Public Cloud Storage Services
 

Featured Reviews

MuhammadAzhar Khan - PeerSpot reviewer
Diverse features and affordability drive effective resource management
Amazon EBS offers diverse features. It can be used for multi-purpose storage, supporting single, multiple, or heavy loads. It has different types for various use cases, allowing me to choose based on my specific requirements. The primary advantage of Amazon EBS is affordability compared to other solutions like EFS or FSX. It acts as a hard drive for servers, making it essential for operation.
Vagner Martins - PeerSpot reviewer
Enhanced data security with seamless integration and static website capabilities
S3 is a great service offering numerous possibilities. It allows for storing objects and files of various types. I appreciate its capability to create static websites and integrate with services like CloudFront, EC2, and DynamoDB. Despite being focused on security, I leverage features such as cryptography and integration with CloudTrail.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
52%
Computer Software Company
11%
Manufacturing Company
7%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Educational Organization
77%
Computer Software Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
3%
Manufacturing Company
2%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Which is better - Amazon's S3 Glacier or EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
Our organization ran comparison tests to determine whether Amazon's S3 Glacier or Elastic Block Store data storage software was the better fit for us. We decided to go with Amazon's S3 Glacier, whi...
What do you like most about Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
The durability and snapshot capabilities are good.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store)?
The cost of Amazon EBS storage is high. I rate the price as eight out of ten. It is expensive to store a lot yet provides significant cost-efficiency as I pay only for the storage time required.
What do you like most about Amazon S3?
We can easily connect to the AWS resources.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon S3?
S3 is a pay-as-you-go service. I pay based on the data volume I am using.
What needs improvement with Amazon S3?
There is a limitation with the data upload size, such as the five terabytes restriction. I would like to see an increase in the data upload limit, similar to DynamoDB, where there is no data limit.
 

Also Known As

No data available
S3, Simple Storage Service
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Bazaar Voice, Crowd Strike, Adobe, Gamevil, Hess, CopperEgg, TotalJobs Group, SuperCell, Dropcam, Unilever
Netflix, Airbnb, Thomson Reuters, Zillow, Alert Logic
Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) vs. Amazon S3 and other solutions. Updated: March 2024.
844,944 professionals have used our research since 2012.