There really is no comparison.

But, don't take our word for it. We're confident that our object storage solution is the most robust and usable product on the market, and we want you to be, too. Here’s a head-to-head comparison of the most popular object storage solutions available.

Features	SoftLayer Object Storage	RackSpace Cloud Files	Amazon S3
Built-in Search
Global Storage Clusters
Hybrid Hosting		Requires Rack Connect
Open Source Platform
CDN Integration
Robust API

Search Service

SoftLayer Object Storage is the only object-based cloud storage solution on the market with a built-in search feature. Customize your search by account, container, or object and input a variety of parameters to ensure the best return possible.

Example search parameters:

• Format—Specify how you want your results returned. Format options are json, XML and plain text.
• Recursive—Require the system to search recursively, if desired.
• Sort—Choose how you want your response sorted. While the system defaults to sort based on the best match, users have the option to override and receive the results based on the desired property.

Open Source Software

SoftLayer Object Storage is based on OpenStack Object Storage (code-named Swift).The OpenStack project delivers code that enables any organization to create and offer feature-rich cloud computing services from industry-standard hardware. Visit the SoftLayer Developer Network for extensive documentation on implementing SoftLayer Object Storage.

Hybrid Hosting

SoftLayer is the only provider that allows you to use our object storage solution with both physical and virtual servers within a truly unified environment, for complete flexibility and control of your computing environment.

CDN Integration

Replicate your data to all Points of Presence (PoPs) on the SoftLayer’s unique global network. No one else lets you get your information stored closer to your end users worldwide. Utilize the SoftLayer Private Network bandwidth and Public Inbound bandwidth for free.

Total Control and Simple Management

SoftLayer offers the unparalleled ability to directly manage all aspects of your environment, including core functions such as server reboots, OS reloads, upgrades, firewall management, load balancing and more through our web portal, API and mobile apps.

Global Storage Clusters

Like no other provider, our storage clusters in North America, Europe, and Asia are all connected via a private network, providing secure—not to mention free—in network data transfer.

Store. Tag. Find.

SoftLayer Object Storage boasts the most robust, feature-rich integrated search function for object storage currently on the market.

Extend your data management capabilities beyond traditional storage services. As you store more and more data, it can become unwieldy to find specific objects. But using our built-in search capabilities, you can easily locate content by name, object type, or custom metadata.

Example

When a digital camera or camera-enabled phone snaps a photo, it embeds a series of metadata values in the image. If you save the image in a standard image file format, you can search for it by standard file properties like name, date, and size.

But if you save the same image with additional metadata as an object, you can set object metadata values for the image, such as photo size, resolution, or dimension.

So the difference in an image’s metadata value between both systems might be:

This detail provides granular search capabilities based on the metadata keys and values, in addition to the standard object properties. You can quickly use automated search to find all images with a dimension of "2240×1680" or a resolution of "72×72." The object storage system understands more about what is being stored because it differentiates files based the on characteristics that you define.

Get your objects—to you and your end users—as fast as possible.

With CDN integration available for all SoftLayer Object Storage accounts, you can store your information closer to your operations and end users worldwide.

Rather than serving content directly from your host server, your content is served from a node that is geographically closer to your end user, minimizing the distance the data has to travel, avoiding network traffic jams, and decreasing latency.

Total Access. Total Control.

Get the ultimate flexibility in how you access, manage, and control your SoftLayer Object Storage account. Manage on-the-go with mobile apps, customize your account to fit your operations with our robust API or access it easily through the Customer Portal. The options are virtually limitless. Click the magnify button near each image to see a full size screenshot.

Customer Web Portal

Cluster Information

Nested Folders

Object Details

Mobile App - iPhone

Directory Listing

Cluster Listing

Cluster Details

Main Menu

Mobile App - iPad

Cluster Details

Directory Listing

Cluster Selection

You don't have to search for answers about searchable SoftLayer Object Storage.

Learn more about SoftLayer Object Storage with the frequently asked questions below. If you have a question that's not answered here, live chat, email, or call 866.403.7638.

What is object-based storage? What's the difference between it and other types of storage?

It's easiest to understand object-based storage by comparing it with other types of remote storage-block and file. A block-level storage system (such as iSCSI or most SANs) is, essentially, raw storage with no file system of its own—it leaves file system concerns to the client. In contrast, file-level storage devices (such as a NAS device) have a file system and protocol (such as NFS and SMB/CIFS) for accessing and managing data. An object-based storage system creates data containers—objects—and then writes fixed-sized blocks of un-interpreted bytes within the container, as well as assigned metadata for the object itself.

Why is object storage important?

Object-based storage provides a flexible, highly-scalable solution with the ability to retrieve, leverage and grow when necessary. This makes it exceptional for long term storage of static data, with typical applications including virtual machine images, photo storage, email storage and archiving.

Object-based storage also streamlines intelligent data management. Users can apply policies based on metadata values enabling unstructured data to be dynamically routed to the right storage system. As a result, organizations can optimize the overall efficiency of storage management.

What is a cluster?

A cluster is a set of servers that create scalable and fault-tolerant object storage. When using SoftLayer Object Storage, your data is replicated across the cluster, ensuring that it can be retrieved in the event of node failure. SoftLayer Object Storage clusters are located in our Dallas, Amsterdam, and Singapore data centers. Data can also be replicated between geographic clusters, for a higher level of disaster recovery or business continuity protection.

What is a container?

A container is the basic storage unit for all data that you store in an object-based storage system. Containers work in SoftLayer Object Storage much like folders or directories work in many operating systems. The main difference between containers and folders or directories is that containers are unable to be nested. At minimum, an account must contain one container and the number of containers allowed per account is unlimited. Optionally, additional containers can be created within your account and data may be organized within those containers based on your business needs.

What is an object?

An object represents the data and any metadata for the files stored in the system. Through the REST interface, metadata for an object can be included by adding custom HTTP headers to the request and the data payload as the request body. Objects cannot exceed 5GB and must have names that do not exceed 1024 bytes after URL encoding. However, objects larger than 5GB can be segmented and then concatenated together so that you can upload 5 GB segments and download a single concatenated object. You can work with the segments and manifests directly with HTTP requests.

What developer resources exist for SoftLayer Object Storage?

Check out these articles for in-depth developer information for SoftLayer Object Storage.

SoftLayer Developer Network: An Introduction to Object Storage

KnowledgeLayer: What is Object Storage?

What are some common use cases for SoftLayer Object Storage?

The primary use case for Object Storage is the long term storage of static data. A few example uses would be:

Why should I use a CDN with SoftLayer Object Storage?

Our CDN delivers content more efficiently via a network of 21 cloud-connected nodes running advanced organizing, storing and streaming software. Rather than serving content directly from your host server, your content is served from a node that is geographically closer to your end user, minimizing the distance the data has to travel, avoiding network traffic jams and decreasing latency.

How much does Object Storage cost?

SoftLayer Object Storage offers pay-as-you-go pricing for object storage and bandwidth—all built on our global cloud platform built for Internet scale. Starting at just $0.10/GB.

How does the OpenStack story fit into SoftLayer Object Storage?

The goal of the OpenStack project is to deliver code that enables any organization to create and offer feature-rich cloud computing services from industry-standard hardware. When we began developing SoftLayer Object Storage, we started with the OpenStack Object Storage (code-named Swift) reference architecture and built a feature-rich storage solution from that foundation up. And true to its Open Stack heritage, all of the SoftLayer Object Storage code that we developed has been made public.

How durable is SoftLayer Object Storage?

Object Storage is designed to provide 99.999999999% durability of objects over a given year. This durability level corresponds to an average annual expected loss of 0.000000001% of objects. For example, if you store 10,000 objects with Object Storage, you can, on average, expect to incur a loss of a single object once every 10,000,000 years. In addition, Object Storage is designed to sustain the concurrent loss of data in two facilities.

Where is my data stored?

Object Storage offers storage in the United States, Asia, and Europe. When you create an Object Storage cluster, you will specify which region you prefer. Within that region, your objects are redundantly stored on multiple devices across multiple facilities.

How do I decide which region to store my data in?

When deciding which region is best for you, there are several factors to consider based on your specific application. You may want to store your data in a region that:

• is near to your customers, your data centers, or your other SoftLayer resources in order to reduce data access latencies.
• is remote from your other operations for geographic redundancy and disaster recovery purposes.
• enables you to address specific legal and regulatory requirements.

What is the largest file/object size I can save?

The total volume of data and number of objects you can store are unlimited. Individual SoftLayer Object Storage objects can range in size from 1 byte to 5 terabytes. The largest object that can be uploaded in a single PUT is 5 gigabytes.