Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs IBM Cloud Object Storage comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and IBM are both solutions in the File and Object Storage category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while IBM is ranked #7 with an average rating of 9.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 0.6% mindshare in FaOS, compared to IBM’s 1.1% mindshare. Additionally, 100% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of IBM users who would recommend it.

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 4, 2024

IBM Cloud Object Storage and Amazon EFS are both cloud storage solutions. Amazon EFS appears to have the upper hand due to its feature-rich integration with AWS services.

Features:IBM Cloud Object Storage offers competitive pricing, notable scalability, and substantial data durability, ideal for large-scale unstructured data storage. Amazon EFS provides high availability, automatic scaling for consistent file access, and seamless integration with AWS services, enhancing its overall appeal for applications needing low latency.

Room for Improvement:IBM Cloud Object Storage could enhance its integration with wider cloud environments and upgrade data access speeds. Improving UI design for easier navigation would be beneficial. Additionally, expanding analytics capacities would broaden its utility. Amazon EFS might work on simplifying its learning curve and optimizing cost-effectiveness for smaller operations. Strengthening data migration tools and cross-region replication features could also enhance its offering.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service:IBM Cloud Object Storage provides a straightforward deployment process with flexible storage configurations, backed by robust customer support. While Amazon EFS benefits from its tight integration into AWS, its deployment can be complex due to various configuration options. Amazon's extensive support network aids in addressing these complexities, contributing to a smoother deployment journey for users familiar with AWS infrastructure.

Pricing and ROI:IBM Cloud Object Storage is generally more cost-effective, presenting strong ROI with competitive pricing and efficient storage management. Meanwhile, Amazon EFS involves higher initial costs but justifies its pricing through extensive feature sets and operational efficiencies offered by its AWS ecosystem integration, making its ROI attractive when considering scalability and long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. IBM Cloud Object Storage Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. IBM Cloud Object Storage

March 2025

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Review summaries and opinions

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

Categories and Ranking

Pure Storage FlashBlade

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the File and Object Storage category, the mindshare of Pure Storage FlashBlade is 5.8%, down from 6.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is 0.6%, up from 0.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM Cloud Object Storage is 1.1%, down from 1.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

File and Object Storage

Featured Reviews

Eric Black

Solutions Architect at Recovery Point Systems

The ability to leverage multi-tenancy along with immutability is a huge benefit for us

The only thing I feel FlashBlade is missing is the SOS API. If it had SOS API, that would put it well over the top. Veeam Backup specifically has started to streamline their API, and they are doing that with SOS API. They have optimized it. Any of the S3 devices out there that support this SOS API can have far more API calls at once. On our side, that translates to better restoration. With SOS API, it can leverage far more restorations at a single given time or read from the device in simple terms. That results in maximizing the output and throughput from the device itself.

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MuhammadAzhar Khan

Senior DevOps Engineer at Alibaba Group

Auto-scaling capabilities enhance file management while reducing downtime

The most valuable feature of Amazon EFS is its auto-scaling capability. It's really easy to configure EFS by just creating it and running a command to directly configure it with my servers. It supports unlimited use, and charges are applied based on the file usage at the end of the month. The solution offers reduced downtime and increased durability through its auto-scaling features.

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Steve Qualls

Senior Storage Engineer at Q & Q IT Consulting

Offers the ease with which you can move data between on-premises storage and the cloud and then retrieve it back on-premises when necessary

IBM Cloud Object Storage supports big data and analytics workflows. However, I usually have to refer to my documentation for that. Cloud environments are part of almost every project I've been involved in over the last few years, but I rely heavily on documentation whenever I need to do anything in the cloud. I know the basics, but the technical details always need refreshing. I create the drawings or diagrams of how the on-premises and cloud environments interact. So, visual representations are helpful. I'll diagram the on-premises environment, the cloud environment, and any appliances in between and then work from there. The integration capabilities simplified our data workflows. Like, the integration itself is pretty easy. The access appliances create the connection between both environments.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"It helps simplify our storage, because the user interface is very simple and the installation is easy."

"Among its most appealing features are its ease of handling and minimal maintenance requirements."

"FlashBlade offers low latency, high throughput, and seamless scalability."

"It is very easy to use, and it is very fast."

"What I like best about Pure Storage FlashBlade is its object storage functionality, plus it has fast underlying hardware. Pure Storage FlashBlade is also very stable. I find its stability one of its valuable features."

"The most valuable features are the Metro clustering, and disaster recovery."

"The ease of deployment and management has helped us simplify our storage. We also do not have to worry about capacity management as much. A lot of these things are native to Pure Storage."

"Pure Storage FlashBlade is user-friendly. It's replication feature is great because it has active replication and active DR. That's the beauty of the product. It's a perfect solution for block storage."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pros

"Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is secure as it is used under VPC."

"Elastic File Systems allow me to share data, provision, and manage capacity and performance in AWS."

"I appreciate Amazon's extensive range of services, which makes it a favorable choice."

"Amazon EFS offers the flexibility of scaling as needed without requiring pre-provisioned storage."

"The solution is scalable."

"We can run code and deploy it whenever we want."

"The most beneficial feature of the product for data storage stems from the fact that it serves as a shared file storage."

"Amazon EFS is extremely stable, as it is managed by AWS."

More Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) pros

"The standout feature of IBM Cloud Object Storage is its top-notch security, making it ideal for sensitive applications like mobile financial transactions."

"One of Cloud Object Storage's best features is infinite capacity. This is one of the main advantages if you don't want to use your own storage. You also have the ability to write only, write once, and read many. It's like tape storage but software-based. This feature is essential for financial institutions that require that kind of protection if you write backup or data there."

"Overall, I rate IBM Cloud Object Storage a ten out of ten."

"The capability to replicate data in different locations is valuable since it enables customers to have a cluster over various sites."

"The most valuable feature I like is when you connect it via CLI plug-in...It is a stable solution."

"The integration itself is pretty easy. The access appliances create the connection between both environments."

"IBM has the most number of additional services, this is the main advantage."

"IBM Cloud Object Storage integrates well."

Cons

"The technical support needs to improve. When we open a case, it is auto assigned to a support tech person. Nine out of ten times, we get an email right back saying that person is off until tomorrow. I cannot handle that. They just did this over the weekend to us, too. I had to call our rep and have them do something about it."

"I would like to see the licensing fees improved as well as the price per terabytes."

"I would like to see more deduplication."

"I would like to see better integration."

"To improve FlashBlade, some analysts suggest enhancing its handling of relational database management systems and SQL queries."

"It's on the expensive side, as expected for a niche product."

"I would also like to see better support for CIFS workloads."

"There could be improvements in public cloud integration."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade cons

"Amazon EFS is more costly compared to other storage options available from AWS."

"The user activity needs to be more connected."

"Its deployment process could be faster while installing the Python package directly into the environment."

"The main challenge with EFS is its cost, which is slightly higher compared to EBS or S3."

"It should be simplified. There are people who don't have cloud experience. It should be storage that we are able to just connect to."

"EFS could be improved by including a one-click setup."

"There are challenges related to AWS, such as ensuring proper security measures with IMS code and encryption."

"Around 80 percent of the features of Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) are available on Linux and not in Windows, making it a major drawback of the product."

More Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) cons

"One improvement could be incorporating a feature similar to Dropbox's version history. This would allow users to track modifications made to files over time, which is particularly important for maintaining a record of changes. While the free version might not include this feature, it could be included in the paid version to provide added value to clients. Additionally, having a version history feature that allows users to access modifications made to files over the past three months could be beneficial."

"One area where IBM Cloud Object Storage could potentially improve is in modernizing its underlying codebase."

"IBM has limited cloud storage."

"IBM Cloud storage is not cheap, but it could be."

"The performance could improve in IBM Cloud Object Storage. The throughput or objects per second can have degradation."

"Sometimes technical support lacks a comprehensive understanding of the entire solution, only focusing on the product they support."

"The performance could be better. It isn't bad, but everything is network-based, so you have a performance penalty on the network. You can never achieve the same performance as hardware. That's the disadvantage of cloud storage solutions in general. Cloud performance is one of the main issues clients have."

"Room for improvement depends on customer needs. Some customers prefer pure Object Storage using the S3 protocol, while others use a gateway in front of the storage grid to enable CIFS or NFS."

More IBM Cloud Object Storage cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"We used a reseller for the purchase."

"The price is a little high."

"I feel that the price could always be lowered."

"Our customers have seen a reduction in TCO."

"The price of this solution could be made more affordable."

"Our licensing is renewed annually."

"The price could be cheaper."

"The product is very expensive."

More Pure Storage FlashBlade pricing and cost advice

"Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) offers a pay-as-you-go model, so whenever you use its services, you need to pay."

"The solution's price is mid-ranged."

"I would rate the pricing 7 out of 10."

"It has flexible pricing. You are charged based on your storage."

"The product charges are based on the amount of data stored."

"The product's price depends on the services and the size and capacity at which it is used in a business environment."

"The main challenge with EFS is its cost, which is slightly higher compared to EBS or S3. For one GB or ten GB of data, S3 is much cheaper. EFS could cost around $30 to $50 per month for similar usage."

"Like most cloud providers, IBM likely charges based on storage capacity, typically per gigabyte or terabyte. Their pricing is competitive when compared to AWS or Microsoft."

"You have the option of a monthly or yearly license. Most customers choose the monthly option. I understand what you would like to say. IBM also lets you choose among four types of Cloud Object Storage. The difference is usage, performance, etc. Of course, high-performance storage is more expensive, while low-performance storage is for cold data, and it's really cheap."

"IBM Cloud is cheaper than AWS. If you want to scale your cloud infrastructure, it can be bought at almost the same price."

"Pricing is not cheap."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

34%

Computer Software Company

11%

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

17%

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

38%

Financial Services Firm

19%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The tool's most valuable feature is its fast performance, especially in handling snapshots. It helps during power out...

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What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Pure Storage FlashBlade?

The pricing for FlashBlade is between cheap and moderate. FlashBlade is worth the money due to the experience and per...

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What needs improvement with Pure Storage FlashBlade?

Its configuration should be easier. There should be easier language for the configuration.

See all answers

Which file storage system is better - Amazon EFS (elastic file storage) or Azure File Storage?

Amazon EFS is easy to set up: you can use the AWS management console, API, or command-line. Amazon EFS can grow to pe...

See all answers

What do you like most about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)?

The product's initial setup phase is easy, as per the configurations.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)?

Amazon EFS is more costly compared to other storage options available from AWS.

See all answers

What do you like most about IBM Cloud Object Storage?

The integration itself is pretty easy. The access appliances create the connection between both environments.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Cloud Object Storage?

In general, Object Storage should be a cheaper solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with IBM Cloud Object Storage?

The interface can feel clunky and outdated compared to AWS S3 or Azure Blob Storage. While scalable, latency can be...

See all answers

Comparisons

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Compared 21% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

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Compared 11% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 11% of the time

Pure Storage FlashArray vs Pure Storage FlashBlade

Compared 8% of the time

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Microsoft Azure File Storage vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 54% of the time

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 11% of the time

Google Cloud Storage vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 9% of the time

Amazon S3 Glacier vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 8% of the time

Azure NetApp Files vs Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

Compared 5% of the time

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MinIO vs IBM Cloud Object Storage

Compared 25% of the time

Dell ECS vs IBM Cloud Object Storage

Compared 24% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs IBM Cloud Object Storage

Compared 21% of the time

NetApp StorageGRID vs IBM Cloud Object Storage

Compared 10% of the time

Cloudian HyperStore vs IBM Cloud Object Storage

Compared 8% of the time

More IBM Cloud Object Storage Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Pure Storage FlashBlade

March 2025

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Buyer's Guide

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System)

April 2025

Download Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) product report

Buyer's Guide

IBM Cloud Object Storage

April 2025

Download IBM Cloud Object Storage product report

Also Known As

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Overview

FlashBlade is the industry’s most advanced scale-out storage for unstructured data, powered by a modern, massively parallel architecture to consolidate complex data silos (like backup appliances and data lakes) and accelerate tomorrow’s discoveries and insights.

Pure Storage

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) provides simple, scalable file storage for use with Amazon EC2 instances in the AWS Cloud. Amazon EFS is easy to use and offers a simple interface that allows you to create and configure file systems quickly and easily. With Amazon EFS, storage capacity is elastic, growing and shrinking automatically as you add and remove files, so your applications have the storage they need, when they need it.

When mounted to Amazon EC2 instances, an Amazon EFS file system provides a standard file system interface and file system access semantics, allowing you to seamlessly integrate Amazon EFS with your existing applications and tools. Multiple Amazon EC2 instances can access an Amazon EFS file system at the same time, allowing Amazon EFS to provide a common data source for workloads and applications running on more than one Amazon EC2 instance.

It’s designed for high availability and durability, and provides performance for a broad spectrum of workloads and applications, including Big Data and analytics, media processing workflows, content management, web serving, and home directories.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

IBM Cloud Object Storage is a web-scale platform that stores unstructured data - from petabyte to exabyte - with reliability, security, availability and disaster recovery without replication.

IBM

Sample Customers

ServiceNow, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Motorsport, Dominos, Man AHL

Arcesium, Atlassian, Seeking Alpha, Zend

Bitly, Dreamstime, Prime Research

Buyer's Guide

Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. IBM Cloud Object Storage

March 2025

Free Report: Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. IBM Cloud Object Storage

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) vs. IBM Cloud Object Storage and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.

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