# Object storage for enterprise buyers: what AI models recommend, September 2026

Gane Index, September 2026 Edition. Asked as "object storage service" and as "S3-compatible cloud storage", six framings each, to twelve models with search on, on behalf of an enterprise B2B company. Page: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/object-storage/2026-09/enterprise

This is the permanent record of the September 2026 Edition, published September 17, 2026 and superseded since. The current standing: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/cloud/object-storage/enterprise/index.md

**Standing:** Amazon S3 leads with 30% of first choices; verdict contested. 40 first choices across the direct, paraphrase, budget and scale prompts.

## First-choice share

| Rank | Product | Share | Negative rate | Labels |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | [Amazon S3](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/amazon-s3/index.md) | 30% | 23% | 52 |
| 2 | [Wasabi Object Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/wasabi-object-storage/index.md) | 25% | 23% | 35 |
| 3 | [Cloudflare R2](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudflare-r2/index.md) | 12% | 21% | 28 |
| 4 | [Backblaze B2](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/backblaze-b2/index.md) | 10% | 16% | 31 |
| 5 | [NetApp StorageGRID](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/netapp-storagegrid/index.md) | 8% | 0% | 15 |
| 6 | [Scality RING](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/scality-ring/index.md) | 5% | 5% | 19 |
| 7 | [IBM Cloud Object Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/ibm-cloud-object-storage/index.md) | 2% | 0% | 20 |
| 8 | [Azure Blob Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/azure-blob-storage/index.md) | 2% | 31% | 39 |
| 11 | [MinIO AIStor](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/minio-aistor/index.md) | 0% | 12% | 34 |
| 12 | [Cloudian HyperStore](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/cloudian-hyperstore/index.md) | 0% | 0% | 22 |
| 13 | [Google Cloud Storage](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/google-cloud-storage/index.md) | 0% | 29% | 42 |
| 14 | [Dell ObjectScale](https://www.gane.ai/index/it/vendors/dell-objectscale/index.md) | 0% | 13% | 15 |

Rank is by share of first choices among all 54 products named; products with the same share are tied, and the order among them carries no meaning. The table lists those with at least 10 labels.

## Each model's first choice on the direct prompt

- Claude Haiku 4.5: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, IBM Cloud Object Storage
- GPT-5.4 mini: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage
- Gemini 3.5 Flash: Cloudflare R2; alternatives Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage, MinIO AIStor
- Perplexity Sonar: Amazon S3, NetApp StorageGRID; alternatives Cloudian HyperStore, IBM Cloud Object Storage
- Grok 4.20: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Dell ObjectScale, Google Cloud Storage, IBM Cloud Object Storage
- Mistral Small: NetApp StorageGRID, Scality RING; alternatives Amazon S3, Cloudian HyperStore
- DeepSeek V4 Flash: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Cloudflare R2, Google Cloud Storage
- Llama 4 Maverick: no first choice
- Qwen 3.7 Flash: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Dell ObjectScale, Google Cloud Storage, MinIO AIStor
- Kimi K2: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Google Cloud Storage
- GLM 4.7 FlashX: Amazon S3; alternatives Azure Blob Storage, Ceph, Cloudian HyperScale, Google Cloud Storage
- MiniMax M2.5: Amazon S3, Cloudflare R2; alternatives Backblaze B2, MinIO AIStor, Wasabi Object Storage

## Sources the answers cite

62 of 72 answers came back with a source list, from 12 of 12 models. Sites named in the most answers:

- solved.scality.com: 32 answers, 41 citations
- cloudian.com: 26 answers, 38 citations
- backblaze.com: 24 answers, 28 citations
- worldmetrics.org: 23 answers, 29 citations
- mixpeek.com: 23 answers, 28 citations
- gartner.com: 22 answers, 25 citations
- wasabi.com: 19 answers, 31 citations
- enterprisestorageforum.com: 19 answers, 19 citations

Pages named in the most answers:

- https://gartner.com/reviews/market/file-and-object-storage-platforms (22 answers)
- https://solved.scality.com/best-object-storage-solutions-for-enterprises (20 answers)
- https://enterprisestorageforum.com/cloud/best-object-storage-solutions (19 answers)
- https://solutionsreview.com/data-storage/the-best-object-storage-solutions (16 answers)
- https://digitalocean.com/resources/articles/object-storage-solutions-cloud-data (15 answers)
- https://mixpeek.com/curated-lists/best-s3-compatible-object-storage (15 answers)
- https://worldmetrics.org/service/object-storage (15 answers)
- https://cloudexpat.com/blog/enterprise-cloud-storage-comparison-2025 (14 answers)
- https://backblaze.com/cloud-storage (13 answers)
- https://ourcodeworld.com/articles/read/4629/best-object-storage-solutions-for-enterprise-backup-in-2026 (12 answers)

## Warned against

- Google Cloud Storage: 12 of 42 labels negative. "avoid or be cautious about ... those with high egress fees or minimum retention periods, such as GCS and Azure Cold" (Llama 4 Maverick, negative prompt)
- Amazon S3: 12 of 52 labels negative. "Why Not Hyperscalers (AWS S3, GCP, Azure Blob)? ... leads to unpredictable bills" (Grok 4.20, budget prompt)
- Azure Blob Storage: 12 of 39 labels negative. "Avoid: Traditional hyperscalers (AWS/Azure/GCP)" (Kimi K2, budget prompt)
- Wasabi Object Storage: 8 of 35 labels negative. "Some services, like Wasabi, enforce a 90-day minimum retention period... Enterprises should avoid such providers for workloads with unpredictable or frequent data deletion needs." (Mistral Small, negative prompt)

## Record

- Method: https://www.gane.ai/index/it/methodology
- License: CC BY 4.0. Cite as Gane Index, September 2026 Edition, www.gane.ai/index/it.