Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)

Name: Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS)
Brand: Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Rating: 4.6 (160 reviews)

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Est 2006|Valuation $2560B|9 Ref Customers

LinkedIn 10.9M|Website|Web traffic 1.1M|FTEs 148,001|HQ Seattle, Washington, US

MarketsCloud Infrastructure Providers (IaaS/PaaS)Cloud Infrastructure Providers (IaaS/PaaS)

Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) screenshot

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative analysis

Feature differentiation: - AWS EBS: breadth of volume types and features (snapshots, archive tier, elastic volume modifications); constrained by AZ-scoped volumes for HA patterns. - Azure Managed Disks: multiple performance families and redundancy options; billing is tier- and size-based. - Google Cloud: some disk types include I/O in the price for provisioned capacity, which can reduce IOPS metering surprises. Pricing comparison (high level): - AWS gp3 includes baseline IOPS/throughput with above-baseline provisioning available at additional cost. - Google Persistent Disk documentation highlights that for certain disk types, I/O operations are included with provisioned space pricing. - Azure pricing is tiered and can involve bursting and different add-ons. Customer sentiment vs competitors: - Review excerpts emphasize EBS strengths and weaknesses internally; for cost-sensitive workloads, teams often consider lower-cost disk options on other clouds or architectural changes (e.g., moving to object storage or managed databases) to reduce block storage costs.

	Amazon EBS	Azure Managed Disks	Google Persistent Disk / Hyperdisk
Starting Price	Varies by type/region; pricing typically includes per-GB-month charges plus potential add-on IOPS/throughput charges	Tiered disk families billed hourly; pricing varies by disk type (Standard HDD/SSD, Premium, Ultra)	Priced per provisioned capacity; for some disk types I/O operations are included in the price
Best For	EC2-based workloads requiring attachable block storage and snapshot workflows	Azure VM workloads requiring managed block disks with selectable performance tiers	GCE workloads; general-purpose persistent disks and Hyperdisk for higher performance scenarios
Key Strength	Deep EC2 integration, mature snapshot ecosystem, multiple volume types covering general to high-end performance	Multiple performance families and redundancy options; broad Azure integration	Pricing models that include I/O for some disk types, and an emphasis on clarity in some documentation
Key Weakness	Costs can grow with provisioned performance add-ons; AZ-scoped volumes; snapshot accumulation	Multiple tiers and options can add decision complexity and potential overprovisioning	Product evolution and differing disk families can add decision overhead

01Competitive Landscape

Narrative analysis

Feature differentiation:

AWS EBS: breadth of volume types and features (snapshots, archive tier, elastic volume modifications); constrained by AZ-scoped volumes for HA patterns.
Azure Managed Disks: multiple performance families and redundancy options; billing is tier- and size-based.
Google Cloud: some disk types include I/O in the price for provisioned capacity, which can reduce IOPS metering surprises.

Pricing comparison (high level):

AWS gp3 includes baseline IOPS/throughput with above-baseline provisioning available at additional cost.
Google Persistent Disk documentation highlights that for certain disk types, I/O operations are included with provisioned space pricing.
Azure pricing is tiered and can involve bursting and different add-ons.

Customer sentiment vs competitors:

Review excerpts emphasize EBS strengths and weaknesses internally; for cost-sensitive workloads, teams often consider lower-cost disk options on other clouds or architectural changes (e.g., moving to object storage or managed databases) to reduce block storage costs.

	Amazon EBS	Azure Managed Disks	Google Persistent Disk / Hyperdisk
Starting Price	Varies by type/region; pricing typically includes per-GB-month charges plus potential add-on IOPS/throughput charges	Tiered disk families billed hourly; pricing varies by disk type (Standard HDD/SSD, Premium, Ultra)	Priced per provisioned capacity; for some disk types I/O operations are included in the price
Best For	EC2-based workloads requiring attachable block storage and snapshot workflows	Azure VM workloads requiring managed block disks with selectable performance tiers	GCE workloads; general-purpose persistent disks and Hyperdisk for higher performance scenarios
Key Strength	Deep EC2 integration, mature snapshot ecosystem, multiple volume types covering general to high-end performance	Multiple performance families and redundancy options; broad Azure integration	Pricing models that include I/O for some disk types, and an emphasis on clarity in some documentation
Key Weakness	Costs can grow with provisioned performance add-ons; AZ-scoped volumes; snapshot accumulation	Multiple tiers and options can add decision complexity and potential overprovisioning	Product evolution and differing disk families can add decision overhead