Nasuni conducted a comparative study of 16 cloud storage providers, testing their performance, stability/availability, and scalability. Only 6 providers passed the testing: Amazon S3, AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service, Microsoft Azure, Nirvanix, Peer1 Hosting, and Rackspace Cloud. Amazon S3 and Microsoft Azure emerged as the top performers based on tests of API integration, units, performance, stability, and scalability. The full report describes Nasuni's methodology and provides detailed results.

1. Cloud Storage Providers
Comparative Study
Dayanand Shanmugham
http://www.linkedin.com/in/dayanandshanmugham
http://dkangala.wordpress.com
January 2013

2. Comparative Study (Done by Nasuni)
http://www.nasuni.com/downloads/resources/87/the_state_of_cloud_storage.pdf
Background:
1. In April 2009, Nasuni began an ongoing and unprecedented evaluation process of
“Cloud Service Providers (CSPs)” based on a wide array of factors
2. Technical test looked at how CSPs perform in a specific use case, namely, how
they perform for organizations that want to take advantage of the cloud for
primary storage, data protection and disaster recovery. Nasuni did not test for
every possible use case.
3. Test focus on three key areas of importance for organizations that want to take
advantage of cloud storage:
– Performance: The cloud needs to respond quickly to queries and not slow when
stressed. If performance is poor, organizations will spend too much time waiting on the
cloud and productivity will suffer.
– Stability/Availability: If organizations are to trust critical data to the cloud, it must be
available at all times.
– Scalability: One of the primary advantages of cloud storage is unlimited capacity.
Without this property, the cloud is much less valuable to organizations.

3. Comparative Study Results
http://www.nasuni.com/downloads/resources/87/the_state_of_cloud_storage.pdf
Results:
1. Ultimately, only 6 of 16 providers passed Nasuni’s testing:
– Amazon S3
– AT&T Synaptic Storage as a Service
– Microsoft Azure
– Nirvanix
– Peer1 Hosting
– Rackspace Cloud
1. Only Two Cloud Service Providers emerged as top performers in the
Nasuni study:
– Amazon S3
– Microsoft Azure
(Note: Amazon S3 standout across all evaluation areas)

4. Comparative Study Methodology
http://www.nasuni.com/downloads/resources/87/the_state_of_cloud_storage.pdf
Methodology:
1. API Integration – To ensure that it is possible to test the service at
all
2. Unit Testing – Larger software components are broken down into
their building blocks (units) and then tested for inputs, outputs and
error cases
3. Performance Testing – To measure response time (how quickly one
can interact with the cloud), throughput (how fast data can move
back and forth to and from the cloud), and the impact of a higher
level of stress.
4. Stability Testing – To assess the long-term reliability of each CSP
5. Scalability Testing – To understand how well each CSP handles high
object counts

5. Comparative Study Reports
http://www.nasuni.com/downloads/resources/87/the_state_of_cloud_storage.pdf

6. Comparative Study Reports
http://www.nasuni.com/downloads/resources/87/the_state_of_cloud_storage.pdf

7. Comparative Study Reports
http://www.nasuni.com/downloads/resources/87/the_state_of_cloud_storage.pdf