Object access, file access & analytics · AWS vs Google Cloud
Amazon S3 vs Cloud Storage hierarchical namespace
A data lake with real directories maps to Cloud Storage buckets with hierarchical namespace, which add folders and atomic folder rename.
Side-by-side comparison
| Aspect | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|
| Service | Amazon S3 | Cloud Storage hierarchical namespace |
| Lifecycle | Generally available | Generally available |
| What it is | Object storage in buckets, with 11 nines of durability, a choice of storage classes, versioning, replication, Object Lock, and fine-grained IAM and bucket policies. General purpose buckets hold any object type; directory, table, and vector buckets are specialized bucket types. | Bucket option with real folders and atomic folder operations such as rename, for analytics and AI/ML workloads. |
| Pricing model | Standard S3 pricing by storage class and requests. | Billed per GB-month by storage class and location, plus operations (per 10,000), retrieval fees for colder classes, and network egress. |
| Docs | Amazon S3 docs | Cloud Storage hierarchical namespace docs |
| Pricing page | Amazon S3 pricing | Cloud Storage hierarchical namespace pricing |
Key differences
- Hierarchical namespace is chosen when the bucket is created.
- Plain S3 has only a flat namespace with prefixes, so this is closer to Azure Data Lake Storage than to S3.
Pricing summary
Pricing models only. No prices are quoted because they change by region and over time.
- AWS
- Standard S3 pricing by storage class and requests. Amazon S3 pricing →
- GCP
- Billed per GB-month by storage class and location, plus operations (per 10,000), retrieval fees for colder classes, and network egress. Cloud Storage hierarchical namespace pricing →
And on Azure?
Partial match Azure's equivalent is Azure Data Lake Storage (hierarchical namespace). AWS vs Azure comparison →
FAQ
What is the Google Cloud equivalent of Amazon S3?
A data lake with real directories maps to Cloud Storage buckets with hierarchical namespace, which add folders and atomic folder rename.
How does pricing compare between Amazon S3 and Cloud Storage hierarchical namespace?
AWS: Standard S3 pricing by storage class and requests. Google Cloud: Billed per GB-month by storage class and location, plus operations (per 10,000), retrieval fees for colder classes, and network egress. Check the official pricing pages for current rates.
What is the Azure equivalent?
Azure Data Lake Storage (hierarchical namespace) (partial match). On AWS, data lakes are built directly on S3 general purpose buckets.