Azure vs AWS vs Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI): Storage Mapping - Part 3

Cloud storage solutions are the backbone of modern IT infrastructure. As businesses transition to cloud environments, understanding the offerings of leading providers like Azure, AWS, and OCI becomes essential. This blog provides a comprehensive comparison of storage services across these platforms, focusing on object storage, archival storage, block storage, shared file systems, bulk data transfer, and hybrid data migration.

Refer Azure vs AWS vs Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI): Accounts, Tagging and Organization Part 1 and/or Azure vs AWS vs Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI): Service Mapping Part 2

Object Storage

Object storage manages data as discrete units, suitable for unstructured data like images, videos, and backups.

• AWS: S3 offers highly scalable storage with features like versioning and lifecycle management.
• Azure: Blob Storage provides different tiers (Hot, Cool, Archive) for varied performance and cost needs.
• OCI: Object Storage is scalable, durable, and supports performance tiers for diverse use cases.

Steps to Create Object Storage:

• AWS: Navigate to the S3 dashboard, create a bucket, and configure settings like versioning and encryption.
• Azure: Set up a storage account, create a Blob container, and choose the desired redundancy and tier.
• OCI: Go to the "Object Storage" section, create a bucket, and configure the tier (Standard or Archive).

Archival Storage

Archival storage offers cost-effective solutions for long-term data preservation.

• AWS: S3 Glacier provides options like expedited, standard, and bulk retrieval.
• Azure: Blob Storage Archive Tier supports low-cost, long-term storage.
• OCI: Archive Storage is designed for affordable, durable long-term data preservation.

Key Configurations:

• AWS: Use lifecycle policies to transition objects to Glacier.
• Azure: Set the Archive tier during Blob creation or modify it later.
• OCI: Configure the Archive tier while uploading objects.

Block Storage

Block storage is ideal for high-performance use cases like databases and VMs.

• AWS: EBS (Elastic Block Store) supports high-performance EC2 storage with multiple volume types.
• Azure: Managed Disks offer scalable and encrypted block storage.
• OCI: Block Volumes deliver high performance with options for replication and backup.

Steps to Create Block Storage:

• AWS: Create EBS volumes, select size and type, and attach them to EC2 instances.
• Azure: Use the "Disks" section to configure size, redundancy, and encryption.
• OCI: Navigate to "Block Volumes," define size, performance level, and attach it to a compute instance.

Shared File Systems

Shared file systems facilitate collaboration by allowing multiple systems to access the same files.

• AWS: EFS (Elastic File System) provides scalable shared storage accessible by multiple EC2 instances.
• Azure: Supports file shares via SMB/NFS protocols or Azure File Sync.
• OCI: File Storage supports NFS-based shared file systems.

Setup Process:

• AWS: Use the EFS dashboard to create a file system, define VPC settings, and mount the target.
• Azure: Create a file share within a storage account or use third-party solutions like NetApp.
• OCI: Navigate to "File Storage," configure NFS export settings, and mount targets.

Bulk Data Transfer

Bulk data transfer is crucial for migrating large datasets to the cloud.

• AWS: Snowball provides hardware-based solutions for transferring terabytes of data.
• Azure: Data Box offers similar hardware solutions for data migration.
• OCI: Data Transfer Appliance supports large-scale data movement.

Steps to Execute Bulk Data Transfer:

• AWS: Use the Snowball wizard to order a device, load data, and transfer it to S3.
• Azure: Configure Data Box for your subscription and resource group.
• OCI: Request a Data Transfer Appliance, load data, and send it back for cloud integration.

Hybrid Data Migration

Hybrid data migration bridges on-premises and cloud environments for seamless integration.

• AWS: Storage Gateway supports hybrid cloud storage and data synchronization.
• Azure: Azure File Sync enables hybrid setups by synchronizing on-premises files with Azure Files.
• OCI: Rclone facilitates Linux-based hybrid data migration to Object Storage.

Setup Process:

• AWS: Configure Storage Gateway for file, volume, or tape gateways.
• Azure: Use Azure File Sync via the marketplace to connect file shares to Azure.
• OCI: Employ Rclone to synchronize on-premises data to OCI Object Storage.

Comparison Table

Services	Amazon Web Services	Azure	Oracle Cloud Infrastructure	Comments
Multi-tenant Virtual Machines	Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2)	Azure Virtual Machines	OCI Virtual Machine Instances	Multi-tenant virtual machines share physical resources among multiple customers or users, providing cost efficiency and scalability while isolating workloads to ensure security and performance.
Single-tenant Virtual Machines	Amazon EC2 Dedicated Instances	Azure Dedicated Hosts	OCI Dedicated Virtual Machine Hosts	Single-tenant virtual machines are dedicated instances allocated to a single customer, providing enhanced security and performance isolation from other tenants within a cloud environment.
Bare Metal Hosts	Amazon EC2 Bare Metal Instances	Azure BareMetal Infrastructure	OCI Bare Metal Instances	Bare metal hosts provide dedicated physical servers without virtualization, offering high performance and complete control over hardware resources for demanding applications and workloads.
Managed Kubernetes Service and Registry	Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) Amazon Elastic Container Registry	Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) Azure Container Registry	Oracle Container Engine for Kubernetes OCI Registry	A managed Kubernetes service provides automated deployment, scaling, and management of containerized applications using Kubernetes, while a managed registry offers a secure, scalable repository for storing and managing container images.
Serverless	Lambda	Azure Functions	Oracle Functions	Serverless computing abstracts infrastructure management away from developers, allowing them to deploy and run code in response to events without provisioning or managing servers.

Conclusion

Each cloud platform offers robust storage solutions with unique features and configurations. AWS leads in scalability and feature richness, Azure excels in hybrid integration, and OCI offers cost-effective solutions tailored for Oracle-heavy environments. Your choice should depend on your workload, cost considerations, and integration requirements.

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