Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

Amazon S3

52.3K
39.1K
+ 1
2K
Openstack Swift

33
89
+ 1
0
Add tool

Amazon S3 vs Openstack Swift: What are the differences?

Key Differences between Amazon S3 and Openstack Swift

Introduction:

In the realm of cloud storage solutions, Amazon S3 and Openstack Swift are two prominent options. While both offer object storage capabilities, there are significant differences between them that make them suitable for different use cases. This article aims to highlight the key distinctions between Amazon S3 and Openstack Swift.

  1. Architecture and Design: Amazon S3 is a proprietary cloud storage service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS), while Openstack Swift is an open-source object storage system. This distinction means that S3 inherits all the benefits and limitations of a proprietary solution, such as vendor lock-in and limited customization options. On the other hand, Openstack Swift provides flexibility and freedom to customize and integrate it with other open-source tools and platforms.

  2. Scalability and Performance: Amazon S3 is known for its exceptional scalability and performance, offering virtually unlimited storage capacity and high data access speeds. It is optimized for handling massive workloads and reliably serving files to a large number of users. Openstack Swift also offers scalability, but it may require additional configuration and tuning to achieve the same level of performance and scalability as Amazon S3.

  3. Pricing and Cost Structure: Amazon S3 follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, where users are charged based on the amount of data stored and the volume of data transferred. It offers various storage classes with different price points to optimize costs. Openstack Swift, being an open-source solution, does not have a direct pricing model. However, it incurs costs related to infrastructure maintenance, support, and personnel required to manage and operate the storage system.

  4. Ecosystem and Integration: Amazon S3 has a well-established ecosystem and integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, making it an ideal choice for users already utilizing the AWS ecosystem. It offers compatibility with numerous third-party tools and libraries. Openstack Swift, being an open-source system, provides integration possibilities with a wide range of software and platforms beyond the Openstack ecosystem. It also allows customization and extensions to meet specific requirements.

  5. Data Protection and Security: Amazon S3 offers comprehensive built-in security features, including authentication, access control, and encryption options to protect data at rest and in transit. It also provides compliance certifications and auditing capabilities, ensuring data security and regulatory compliance. Openstack Swift offers similar security features but may require additional configuration and management to achieve the same level of security as Amazon S3.

  6. Community Support and Development: Amazon S3 benefits from the extensive resources and support provided by AWS, including regular updates, new feature releases, and strong community engagement. Openstack Swift, being an open-source project, benefits from the collaboration of a vibrant community of developers and users. However, the pace of development and availability of support can vary depending on the specific environment and user community.

In summary, the key differences between Amazon S3 and Openstack Swift lie in their architecture and design, scalability and performance, pricing and cost structure, ecosystem and integration possibilities, data protection and security, as well as community support and development.

Decisions about Amazon S3 and Openstack Swift
Gabriel Pa

We offer our customer HIPAA compliant storage. After analyzing the market, we decided to go with Google Storage. The Nodejs API is ok, still not ES6 and can be very confusing to use. For each new customer, we created a different bucket so they can have individual data and not have to worry about data loss. After 1000+ customers we started seeing many problems with the creation of new buckets, with saving or retrieving a new file. Many false positive: the Promise returned ok, but in reality, it failed.

That's why we switched to S3 that just works.

See more
Get Advice from developers at your company using StackShare Enterprise. Sign up for StackShare Enterprise.
Learn More
Pros of Amazon S3
Pros of Openstack Swift
  • 590
    Reliable
  • 492
    Scalable
  • 456
    Cheap
  • 329
    Simple & easy
  • 83
    Many sdks
  • 30
    Logical
  • 13
    Easy Setup
  • 11
    REST API
  • 11
    1000+ POPs
  • 6
    Secure
  • 4
    Plug and play
  • 4
    Easy
  • 3
    Web UI for uploading files
  • 2
    Faster on response
  • 2
    Flexible
  • 2
    GDPR ready
  • 1
    Easy to use
  • 1
    Plug-gable
  • 1
    Easy integration with CloudFront
    Be the first to leave a pro

    Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions

    Cons of Amazon S3
    Cons of Openstack Swift
    • 7
      Permissions take some time to get right
    • 6
      Requires a credit card
    • 6
      Takes time/work to organize buckets & folders properly
    • 3
      Complex to set up
      Be the first to leave a con

      Sign up to add or upvote consMake informed product decisions

      What is Amazon S3?

      Amazon Simple Storage Service provides a fully redundant data storage infrastructure for storing and retrieving any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web

      What is Openstack Swift?

      It is a highly available, distributed, eventually consistent object/blob store. Organizations can use Swift to store lots of data efficiently.

      Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!

      What companies use Amazon S3?
      What companies use Openstack Swift?
      See which teams inside your own company are using Amazon S3 or Openstack Swift.
      Sign up for StackShare EnterpriseLearn More

      Sign up to get full access to all the companiesMake informed product decisions

      What tools integrate with Amazon S3?
      What tools integrate with Openstack Swift?

      Sign up to get full access to all the tool integrationsMake informed product decisions

      What are some alternatives to Amazon S3 and Openstack Swift?
      Amazon Glacier
      In order to keep costs low, Amazon Glacier is optimized for data that is infrequently accessed and for which retrieval times of several hours are suitable. With Amazon Glacier, customers can reliably store large or small amounts of data for as little as $0.01 per gigabyte per month, a significant savings compared to on-premises solutions.
      Amazon EBS
      Amazon EBS volumes are network-attached, and persist independently from the life of an instance. Amazon EBS provides highly available, highly reliable, predictable storage volumes that can be attached to a running Amazon EC2 instance and exposed as a device within the instance. Amazon EBS is particularly suited for applications that require a database, file system, or access to raw block level storage.
      Amazon EC2
      It is a web service that provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers.
      Google Drive
      Keep photos, stories, designs, drawings, recordings, videos, and more. Your first 15 GB of storage are free with a Google Account. Your files in Drive can be reached from any smartphone, tablet, or computer.
      Microsoft Azure
      Azure is an open and flexible cloud platform that enables you to quickly build, deploy and manage applications across a global network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. You can build applications using any language, tool or framework. And you can integrate your public cloud applications with your existing IT environment.
      See all alternatives