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AWS Storage Gateway vs Nasuni vs Panzura CloudFS comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Cloud Storage Gateways category, the mindshare of AWS Storage Gateway is 11.2%, down from 15.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Nasuni is 41.6%, up from 35.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Panzura CloudFS is 24.6%, up from 21.2% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Cloud Storage Gateways
 

Featured Reviews

Sumit Mundik - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides really good documentation so that information is easily accessible
When we opened a ticket for AWS Storage Gateway, the support team was responsive but could not resolve the issue. When we sent a file from MOVEit to AWS Storage Gateway, it sent the file twice. We were not able to figure out why it was doing it. In the AWS S3 bucket, you will find an option called versioning. If a file is sent multiple times, the versioning feature will increase the version one by one. For example, if I send the same file thrice, it will have version one, version two, and the original file. Likewise, they have the versioning. Whenever we send file one, the files are getting duplicated. When we opened a ticket, even the AWS team could not figure it out. They just told us the configuration might be wrong on the AWS Storage Gateway side, and we need to look at it. After that, we also did not follow up because the destination team changed the architecture on their end. Instead of running the Lambda function immediately when the file arrived, they added a sleep time of four to five minutes and then started processing the file.
Richard McGregor - PeerSpot reviewer
Removes a lot of infrastructure, allows us to restore files instantly, and is simple to work with
I particularly like the restore process. Our financial teams make changes to spreadsheets and other files, and we've got teams using Photoshop files. They make mistakes and need to recover files, and we can do that instantly. We also have users who manage to delete folders, and we can bring them back instantly within a few seconds. Knowing that it's all protected from ransomware is also a very big advantage at the moment with the number of ransomware attacks that you see out there. Nasuni is being very protective of that, which is quite good to hear. There were times when we had to replace the filers we've had issues with, and because we know all our data is protected in AWS, we could just turn them off and spin them up. As quickly as in an hour or so, we were back working with zero downtime. That area of functionality is really good. In terms of ease of management, it's the easiest one you can use. It's very simple. It's very easy to set up, very easy to configure, and very easy to manage.
Roger Clark - PeerSpot reviewer
Handles file locks effectively enabling seamless remote collaboration in global teams
It has not reduced the data storage cost. We have been trying to come up with a plan internally to archive project data at a certain time frame. However, our data continues to grow, so at the point of 25 terabytes, we had to buy another 25 terabytes license to exceed that threshold. It would have been nice if they had offered them in increments, of 5, 10, 15, or 20 terabytes than having to get a whole chunk of 25 terabytes again for licensing purposes, which is a little costly. It would be nice if Panzura offered data in increments instead of 25 terabytes per license. They have done a pretty good job of development from the point of offering new products. Pricing seems to be high for certain things, such as the audit feature of Panzura Data Services. It would be nice to see who deleted that 100 gig of data out there. They should make the pricing plan more attractive for a company of our size. We have almost 700 employees over the southeast from Texas to Florida and up to Tennessee, so we are a pretty big region.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The stability is probably the most valuable aspect of the product."
"The solution's most valuable features stem from its ease of use, including how easy it is to set up, configure, and manage the tool."
"AWS Storage Gateway has durability."
"AWS Storage Gateway is used when there's a high requirement for storage and the company has their goal to move to the cloud and they are not comfortable having it in the data centers. They want the data to move to the cloud. We propose storage services that give them flexibility. They don't have to manage their data centers by themselves because it is being managed by Amazon or Microsoft. They do not have to worry about security and vulnerability issues. That is a strategy that companies can find value in and choose a cloud service."
"We like the flexibility and easy-to-use storage. I'm happy about the response time."
"Generally, I use AWS Storage Gateway to reduce the cost of the S3 and caching."
"The most effective features are the asynchronous server functionality, which improves latency and stabilization. I also like the distributed data capabilities for data management."
"The solution gives us the ability to move large amounts of data to the cloud and it gives us on-premises connectivity. Additionally, the storage can be shared from the cloud to on-premise."
"We use Nasuni's continuous file versioning feature and it fully protects us. With the ability to version files and have continuous recovery, it helps in terms of resiliency. If we have an incident then we would be able to easily recover from it by using the technology."
"The solution gives us a breakdown and summary of every resource and each volume within every resource. It tells us the code within a given volume, so I can go in there and look at the size of the files that are stored there. Nasuni gives me the big picture and allows me to connect things like Power BI to any endpoint. I can take that tabular information from Nasuni and look at it in a graph."
"The most valuable feature is disaster recovery. We can fully recover a site in two hours."
"I can see who is logging in on files from all over the globe. For example, if a file is locked, maybe a user in Shanghai has locked files or something, I can see that from the Management Console, then unlock the file."
"The features I find most valuable in Nasuni are the unlimited snapshots, antivirus capabilities, auditing, and ransomware protection."
"Another helpful feature, in addition to restoring a file that was deleted within 24 to 48 hours, is that we have the ability to restore a file or a folder that was deleted, going all the way back to the inception of that file or folder. That means we actually have unlimited backups to the inception point of data with Nasuni."
"The nice thing about Nasuni storage is that it is immutable. This means the data is only written once. So, you never modify the files. When you write a file out to the storage, it doesn't modify it when you change it. The technology knows how to figure out what the difference is between the original file write and what the changes are. Therefore, it only saves the changes."
"The most valuable feature is the simplicity of the backup and restore functions."
"Primarily, it is the way Panzura CloudFS handles the file locks and the way these filers, along with the authoritative copy of all our data, which is about 27 terabytes located in an AWS bucket in the cloud, operate."
"Its most valuable features are the collaboration, the file snapshots, and the data protection the solution provides."
"It is a very solid product. We keep all of our older files on their system. It is easy to restore if a file gets deleted. We have good disaster recovery. It is very reliable and very quick, and we do not have files that get overwritten because it locks the file."
"The assistance of support has been excellent."
"What I appreciate most about Panzura CloudFS is that it really solves the problem we had when we moved all our server workloads to Azure, reducing our on-prem data center footprint sizably."
"For instance, if I'm in India but need to access data in China or Spain, it simplifies the process and enhances collaboration."
"Panzura CloudFS has helped to increase the network resilience by 100%."
"The best features of the Panzura CloudFS solution include collaboration, which is my top priority and top feature. No one else provides this as effectively."
 

Cons

"I cannot say it's perfect."
"Initial setup could be simplified and that would make the user experience better."
"The security could improve in the solution."
"The solution's setup is not easy and takes time to complete."
"When we opened a ticket for AWS Storage Gateway, the support team was responsive but could not resolve the issue."
"AWS Storage Gateway could improve by having different kinds of storage. For example, allowing all kinds of data, whether it's images or structure, not structure data. This would be great."
"Its interface could be easier to use."
"Data migration and collection could be made easier for improvements - there's still work to be done there."
"I would like to see improvement in the training Nasuni provides. Compared to some of the other vendors out there, like Microsoft, where you can find how-to videos, Nasuni only has a lot of PDF documents that you have to go hunting for. It's workable, it certainly isn't a problem, but video walkthroughs would always be helpful."
"I would like to see Nasuni create a Dropbox or Box alternative. One of the things that people like about those tools is that they are very easy to implement. They look just like a file server. With Nasuni, you have to be online to get your file storage. With Dropbox, there is a thing running on your PC that downloads the files to it when you need them, i.e., an agent."
"Its interface design or the graphic user interface design can be slightly tweaked in some areas. Some built-in setup wizards would be very beneficial. Rather than having to go in and configure it by hand, there should be more setup wizards for onboarding new data shares and getting it set up the way you want. I don't know if these are on their roadmap, but I sat down and talked to them about some of the work concerns, some of the things that we liked, and some of the things that we didn't like. They are probably working on that."
"The performance of the filesystem could be improved."
"The speed at which new files are created is something that could be improved. For example, if you create a new file in another country, I won't see it for between 10 and 15 minutes."
"It is difficult to configure Nasuni. Adding a filer is an easy task, but deciding where to add them, how many to add, and what size to add takes a lot of time. I have to analyze my existing storage to understand how many users are going to access which folders. I have to design the Nasuni architecture accordingly."
"We would like to have a user desktop agent to help improve the end-user experience."
"I suggest Nasuni improve their syslog forwarders to support TCP protocol, as it's more secure than UDP, which is plain text and not protected at all."
"There are a few file types that do not work well with Panzura CloudFS."
"Previously, a new update would come out, and there might be something wrong with it, or it may not sync up as well as it should, or it may cause something to lose access to the server."
"In terms of improvements for Panzura CloudFS, I would like to see the Edge feature."
"It has not reduced the data storage cost."
"One area for improvement regarding Panzura CloudFS is moving away from on-prem or local Active Directory. We're exploring a transition to Azure AD or Entra ID, aiming to keep the product functional without heavy reliance on the local Active Directory."
"It would be nice if Panzura offered data in increments instead of 25 terabytes per license."
"It should be easy for people not on the network to connect and access their files."
"There are a few file types that do not work well with Panzura CloudFS. Specifically, the GIS data formats, such as a geo database, have been found better kept outside of Panzura CloudFS."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The solution's price is reasonable."
"We pay a monthly license."
"AWS Storage Gateway is reasonably priced. The price depends on how much you need. The whole synopse model comes into the picture for the cloud where it depends on how many instances per VM and the price will increase. It's a reasonable price because with all the competition around the price has to be competitive. It's not very costly."
"My company needs to get monthly licenses to use the tool."
"There is a monthly subscription for the use of this solution."
"Licensing is paid monthly. Pricing is in the mid-range - not too high or too low."
"There are annual costs that we pay for maintaining all of the snapshot history in the cloud. That is the primary cost that we pay. We occasionally buy newer Nasuni appliances or deploy them to new offices when the need occurs. That capital equipment expenses is less than the cost of buying new file storage systems. For the most part, you are trading a CapEx cost of storage equipment for an OpEx cost for management of all the snapshot data in the cloud."
"The pricing is fair. It's an enterprise-level solution so it's not inexpensive... The cost is pretty stable year over year."
"Nasuni should provide small-scale licenses, like a 20 TB license. Currently, the smallest is a 30 TB license."
"It's cheaper than a lot of alternatives but it's not cheap."
"Its pricing can get a tad expensive. When we first took Nasuni out, we were just paying for the service. We got storage at a reduced rate. It has now changed, and they're now more of an all-in-one type of thing. It can be quite expensive, but it works out. Apart from that, licensing-wise, it's very simple."
"It is around $850 per terabyte per year. Any additional costs that you would incur are for the local caching devices that you'll need to access Nasuni. You kind of provide your own virtual machines or compute to access the data. You also pay for the object storage. So, there are three parts to it. There is the Nasuni license per terabyte. You would also pay for the actual object storage in the cloud, and then you would pay for virtual machines to access the storage."
"Our agreement is set up such that we pay annually per terabyte, and we buy a chunk of it at a time. Then if we run out of space, we go back to them and buy another chunk."
"Its price is fair and reasonable. I don't have anything negative about its pricing and licensing. For us, there is also the cost of monitoring. We are monitoring through Xenos and not through Nasuni. That is another cost for us from the monitoring perspective, but as far as Nasuni goes, we don't have any other cost apart from the licensing fee."
"It is not bad. It is like everything else. Pricing has gone up quite over the last couple of years, but everybody's pricing has gone up. For what they deliver, it is right in line with what everybody else has."
"It's competitive. I don't know what competitors are charging, but they have been very transparent, which is nice, and we've negotiated to avoid percentage increases."
"The pricing seems high on certain products and features, such as the audit feature of Panzura Data Services. They should consider more attractive pricing for companies of our size. The renewals are yearly, but the pricing is a little high for us."
"The solution's pricing is on the expensive side."
"Overall, it is quite costly compared to NetApp and similar solutions."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
29%
Computer Software Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
Insurance Company
5%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
10%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Construction Company
8%
Computer Software Company
16%
Construction Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Manufacturing Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

Is AWS Storage Gateway only suitable for AWS?
No, I'm pretty sure you can't. This is a service of AWS and so you're probably only able to use it there. I haven't u...
Is AWS Storage Gateway easy to use?
Hi, yes, I think it is very easy to use. You can install it rather quickly, and then when you start using it, it's al...
Is AWS Storage Gateway free for users of AWS?
No, this service is not provided for free by AWS. If you visit the AWS website and you look for AWS Storage Gateway p...
Does Nasuni have a good pricing model?
Based on the experience of my organization, Nasuni is definitely worth the money, since it gives you an all-in-one so...
Is it easy to restore files with Nasuni?
As someone who has used this feature of Nasuni I can tell you - yes, it's good for file recovery and you'll definitel...
What features and services does Nasuni offer?
Hi, if you pick Nasuni, you'll be benefiting from many services for a good price. Well, it's a personalized price you...
What are the products that Panzura provides?
Panzura offers four main products: CloudFS, data services, smart apps, and global services. They call this "all-in-on...
What kind of industries does Panzura serve?
Hello, I think businesses from all industries that have their data on a cloud can benefit from Panzura. Especially if...
Why was Panzura acquired? Is the acquisition going to cause a change?
I think Panzura may change in a positive direction now that it's been bought by Profile Capital. That's a very big i...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

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Panzura Freedom
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

King, NEWLOG Consulting, Southern Oregon University, Religare Enterprises Limited, TGIX CloudCover, Moderna Therapeutics, JustGiving, VeriStor
American Standard, CBRE, Cushman & Wakefield, E*TRADE, Ithaca Energy, McLaren Construction, Morton Salt, Movado, Urban Outfitters, Western Digital
Petrofac, Komatsu, HCA Healthcare, Vanguard, Disney, Pokemon, US Department of Justice, Gensler, Fluor, AFRY, Milwaukee Tool, Navy Federal Credit Union, TechTarget
Find out what your peers are saying about Nasuni, CTERA, Panzura and others in Cloud Storage Gateways. Updated: April 2025.
850,900 professionals have used our research since 2012.