Amazon S3 vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP comparison

Amazon Web Services (AWS) and NetApp are both solutions in the Public Cloud Storage Services category. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.7, while NetApp is ranked #6 with an average rating of 9.0. Amazon Web Services (AWS) holds a 11.6% mindshare in PCSS, compared to NetApp’s 7.4% mindshare. Additionally, 98% of Amazon Web Services (AWS) users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of NetApp users who would recommend it.

Amazon S3

Read 82 Amazon S3 reviews

3,769 Views
1,742 Comparison Views

98% willing to recommend

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Read 62 NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP reviews

2,128 Views
701 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Amazon S3

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Oct 1, 2024

Amazon S3 and NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP compete in the cloud storage solutions category. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP has the upper hand due to its advanced data management capabilities, while Amazon S3 excels in cost-effectiveness and ease of use. User reviews indicate higher overall satisfaction with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP.

Features: Amazon S3 users value its scalability, integration options, and cost-effectiveness. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is appreciated for features like snapshots, cloning, and tiering. Advanced data management capabilities make NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP stand out compared to Amazon S3's basic storage functionalities.

Room for Improvement: Amazon S3 users highlight the need for improved performance, more comprehensive support, and enhanced security features. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP users request more intuitive setup processes, better documentation, and streamlined updates. The complexities in NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP's setup are more frequently mentioned as an area needing improvement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Amazon S3 is praised for its straightforward deployment and reliable customer service. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP's deployment is perceived as more complex, requiring better initial guidance. Despite this, users find the customer service for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP to be responsive and helpful.

Pricing and ROI: Amazon S3 offers an affordable solution with good ROI, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP may have higher setup costs, but users feel the investment is justified by its robust features and functionality. Amazon S3 is considered cost-effective, whereas NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP provides greater value through advanced capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed Amazon S3 vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

June 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

Amazon S3

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

2nd

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Ranking in Public Cloud Storage Services

6th

Average Rating

8.8

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Cloud Migration (1st), Cloud Storage (2nd), Cloud Backup (14th), Cloud Software Defined Storage (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Public Cloud Storage Services category, the mindshare of Amazon S3 is 11.6%, down from 13.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is 7.4%, up from 7.0% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Public Cloud Storage Services

Featured Reviews

Vagner Martins

Information Security Analyst at a financial services firm with 201-500 employees

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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Pramod-Talekar

Sr Service Engineer at a healthcare company with 1,001-5,000 employees

Allows customers to manage SAN and NAS data within a single storage solution

The tool's most valuable features are the SnapLock and SnapMirror features. If something goes wrong with the data, we can restore it. This isn't a mirror; we store data in different locations. If there's an issue on the primary site, we can retrieve data from the secondary site. Multiprotocol support in NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is beneficial because it allows customers to manage SAN and NAS data within a single storage solution. This feature eliminates the need to purchase different types of storage.

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

"The most valuable features of Amazon S3 are the global availability, resiliency, and ease of access control."

"The most valuable features of Amazon S3 are compatibility and reliability."

"Amazon S3 is very stable, and I have never had any performance issues."

"Cloud infrastructure is the most valuable feature."

"The solution's most valuable feature is its security, as it does not provide public access."

"The stability is very good."

"The most valuable features of the Amazon S3 are its ease of use and integration"

"Amazon S3 is very flexible and provides high storage."

More Amazon S3 pros

"NetApp's XCP Migration Tool... was pretty awesome. It replicated the data faster than any other tool that I've seen. That was a big help."

"The most valuable features are that it's reliable, simple, and performs well."

"The main benefit we get from this product is the ability to deploy it anywhere we want, whether that's on-prem, a remote physical location, or in the cloud. It doesn't matter from an operational perspective where it is. The command line and operating system are the same."

"The good thing about NetApp is the features that are available on the cloud are also available on-premises."

"One of the most valuable features is its similarity to the physical app, which makes it familiar. It's almost identical to a real NetApp, which means you can run all of the associated NetApp processes and services with it. Otherwise, we would definitely have to deploy some hardware on a site somewhere, which could be a challenge in terms of CapEx."

"Replication to the cloud is the most valuable feature. Deduplication and compression are also very important to us. We are in the process of adopting to the cloud. We are going to AWS and we are trying to do a safety technician call out with integration to the cloud. NetApp allows us to move some of the volume to the cloud, at the same time that we continue providing the cloud services that we have on premises."

"Snapshots are one valuable feature within ONTAP, but CVO's appeal is that it acts just like the on-prem solution. It's the same OS, but in the cloud. We can continue to use ONTAP as we did on-premise."

"The feature which I like the most is that it has the capabilities that the traditional storage system offers. It provides all the functionality. The deduplication and compression work exactly like ONTAP's traditional storage. So people who have experience with that find it very easy to manage."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pros

Cons

"I would like to see an easier setup that doesn't require as much training."

"The tool needs to improve its flexibility in support."

"Amazon S3 could improve by having more frequent updates."

"AWS should provide more attractive and comprehensive documentation, especially while integrating Amazon S3 with other AWS services like Elemental MediaConvert."

"Enhancements in security features might be beneficial."

"The installation could be more straightforward for inexperienced users."

"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."

"We would like Amazon to reduce the price of storage."

More Amazon S3 cons

"How it handles erasure coding. I feel it the improvement should be there. Basically, it should be seamless. You don't want to have an underlying hardware issue or something, then suddenly there's no reads or writes. Luckily, it's at a replication site, so our main production site is still working and writing to it. But, the replication site has stopped right now while we try to bring that node back. Since we implemented in bare-metal, not in appliance, we had to go back to the original vendor. They didn't send it in time, and we had a hardware memory issue. Then, we had a hard disk issue, which brought the node down physically."

"There is room for improvement in tier one support, especially with potential language barriers and communication challenges."

"The automated deployment was a bit complex using the public APIs. When we had to deploy Cloud Volumes ONTAP on a regular basis using automation, It could be a bit of a challenge."

"Not a perfect ten because it's not very efficient with upgrades and management."

"I would want more visibility and data analytics where we can see anomalies within the shares within the GUI."

"I would like to see more aggressive management of the aggregate space. On the Cloud Volumes ONTAP that we use for offsite backup copies, most of the data sits in S3. There are also the EBS volumes on the Cloud Volumes ONTAP itself. Sometimes what happens is that the aggregate size just stays the same. If it allocates 8 terabytes initially, it just stays at 8 terabytes for a long time, even though we're only using 20 percent of that 8 terabytes. NetApp could undersize that more aggressively."

"I would like to see better integration with Active IQ."

"The data tiering needs improvement. E.g., moving hard data to faster disks."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"For pricing, I would give it a six or seven out of ten."

"The solution is fairly priced."

"The license of Amazon S3 is based on volume, capacity, and time. The overall price of the solution could improve. The support has to be added if you want it at an additional cost."

"The price of the Amazon S3 is low. The license model is based on what you use."

"The price is okay."

"Not many products in the market beat the solution in terms of quality or price."

"The price of Amazon S3 is competitive with other solutions."

"The cost of storage is cheap. However, the cost to have a better interface can get expensive. We are using Athena for this purpose and if we did some heavy queries the cost will start adding up. When the Athena query is running, it will scan the bucket and they charge for how many GBs we are going to scan. The function of scanning has a lot of costs attached to it, this is a negative point."

More Amazon S3 pricing and cost advice

"The pricing of this solution is definitely higher than what the typical Azure Files and AWS solutions charge, but given the features and the stability NetApp has provided, we are okay with it. We are not complaining about the pricing."

"The standard pricing is online. Pricing depends. If you're using the PayGo model, then it's just the normal costs on the Microsoft page. If you're using Bring Your Own License, which is what we're doing, then you get with your sales contact at NetApp and start figuring out what price is the best, in the end, for your company."

"Once we deploy the pay as you go model, we cannot convert this product as a BYOL model. This is a concern that we have."

"They allow a special price if you are working closely with them. Since we have a lot of NetApp systems, we got some kind of discount. That's something they do for other customers, not just for us. The price was fair. In addition to the licensing fees, you're paying Amazon for your usage..."

"It is not a cheap solution because we need to pay for the license and pay for Azure resources as well."

"Purchasing through the AWS Marketplace was good, but it was a test system, not a real purchase."

"We purchased the product directly from NetApp."

"For enterprise customers, it's a very cost effective. But in the SMB segment, yeah, pricing is a little bit challenge for your time."

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

63%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

Educational Organization

36%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Financial Services Firm

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Amazon S3?

We can easily connect to the AWS resources.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Amazon S3?

AWS pricing for Amazon S3 starts at a higher cost, particularly in the standard class. However, with lifecycle management policies, costs can be optimized over time. On a scale from one to ten, I w...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Amazon S3?

AWS ( /products/amazon-aws-reviews ) should provide more attractive and comprehensive documentation, especially while integrating Amazon S3 with other AWS services like Elemental MediaConvert. Curr...

See all answers

What do you like most about NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

So a lot of these licenses are at the rate that is required for capacity. So they're they're able to reduce the license consumption and also the consumption of the underlying cloud storage.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

The solution's pricing is reasonable.

See all answers

What needs improvement with NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP?

NetApp's support could improve.

See all answers

Comparisons

Google Cloud Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 14% of the time

Oracle Cloud Object Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 14% of the time

Microsoft Azure File Storage vs Amazon S3

Compared 11% of the time

Rackspace Cloud Files vs Amazon S3

Compared 8% of the time

Nutanix Unified Storage (NUS) vs Amazon S3

Compared 6% of the time

More Amazon S3 Competitors

Azure NetApp Files vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 18% of the time

Red Hat Ceph Storage vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 11% of the time

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

Compared 9% of the time

Portworx Enterprise vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 6% of the time

Amazon FSx vs NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Compared 5% of the time

More NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3

June 2025

Download Amazon S3 product report

Buyer's Guide

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

May 2025

Download NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP product report

Also Known As

S3, Simple Storage Service

ONTAP Cloud, CVO, NetApp CVO

Overview

Amazon Simple Storage Service is storage for the Internet. It is designed to make web-scale computing easier for developers.

Amazon S3 has a simple web services interface that you can use to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. It gives any developer access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites. The service aims to maximize benefits of scale and to pass those benefits on to developers.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP is an efficient storage management solution for managing and storing data in the cloud. It offers seamless integration with cloud providers, advanced data replication capabilities, and high data protection. With reliable performance, it is ideal for industries like healthcare and finance.

NetApp

Sample Customers

Netflix, Airbnb, Thomson Reuters, Zillow, Alert Logic

1. Accenture 2. Acer 3. Adidas 4. Aetna 5. AIG 6. Apple 7. Bank of America 8. Barclays 9. Bayer 10. Berkshire Hathaway 11. BNP Paribas 12. Cisco 13. Coca-Cola 14. Comcast 15.ConocoPhillips 16. CVS Health 17. Dell 18. Deutsche Bank 19. eBay 20. Eli Lilly 21. FedEx 22. Ford 23. Freescale Semiconductor 24. General Electric 25. Google 26. Honeywell 27. IBM 28. Intel 29. Intuit 30. JPMorgan Chase 31. Kellogg's 32. KeyCorp 33. Liberty Mutual 34. L'Oréal 35. Mastercard

Buyer's Guide

Amazon S3 vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

June 2025

Free Report: Amazon S3 vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP

Find out what your peers are saying about Amazon S3 vs. NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

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