The direct or “standalone” desktop applications, S3 Drive and S3 Explorer, work as independent desktop clients directly connecting IBM Cloud Object Storage. Configuration information was verified and performance information collected during a certification process at the IBM Cloud Object Storage Alliance Integration Team certification lab.

1. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 1
SOLUTION GUIDE
IBM COS - STORAGE MADE EASY: S3 DRIVE &
S3 EXPLORER
INTRODUCTION
This document outlines the solution architecture, configuration, functionality and performance
characteristics of Storage Made Easy™ (SME) direct apps with IBM Cloud Object Storage (COS). The
direct or “standalone” desktop applications, S3 Drive and S3 Explorer, work as independent desktop
clients directly connecting IBM Cloud Object Storage. Configuration information was verified and
performance information collected during a certification process at the IBM Cloud Object Storage
Alliance Integration Team certification lab.
A separate guide provides information on the full stack Storage Made Easy Enterprise File Fabric™
product.
PRODUCTS TESTED
Storage Made Easy software:
• Storage Made Easy S3 Drive 3.5.0
• Storage Made Easy S3 Explorer 3.5.0
IBM software:
• IBM Cloud Object Storage – On Premise (version 3.10.2.72)
• IBM Cloud Object Storage – US South (version 3.11.0.89)
• IBM Cloud Object Storage – US Region (version 3.11.0.89)
S3 DRIVES
The S3 Drive enables users to mount and interact with IBM Cloud Object Storage as a local disk. Users
can browse and open remote files with desktop applications including the Microsoft Office Suite. The
Windows File Explorer can be used to copy, move and rename objects as if they were files and folders.
The S3 Drive can also be accessed through Windows batch scripts as if it was a regular local drive.
S3 EXPLORERS
The S3 Explorer desktop application allows users to interact with IBM Cloud Object Storage through a
familiar file explorer like interface. From the menu, or using drag and drop, users can easily upload,
download and delete files and folders. Copying, moving and renaming objects and folders is also
supported. Objects can be quickly located through search, and sensitive data automatically encrypted
on upload.

2. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 2
CERTIFICATION
The certification exercise included installing products and executing functional and performance tests
with IBM Cloud Object Storage - on premise and public cloud.
Functional tests centered around uploading, downloading, copying and deleting files and folders. App
specific features such as rename and searching were also tested.
Performance testing focused on throughput supported by a single app simulating heavy usage by a
single end user. Results were compared between on premise and cloud instances of IBM Cloud
Object Storage.
SOLUTION ARCHITECTURE
The S3 Drive and S3 Explorer were deployed to a Windows 10 virtual machine. Other than endpoints,
configuration for the different IBM COS instances was the same.
IBM COS Public Cloud
For testing with IBM COS in the public cloud over the Internet the apps were configured for an S3
compatible endpoint over HTTPS.
IBM COS On-Premises
An on premise deployment of IBM COS offers multiple endpoints for high availability. To allow the
apps to use both endpoints a load balancer was used. An Nginx load balancer was used during
certification but any open source or commercial load balancer (supporting HTTPS) would be
appropriate.

3. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 3
DEPLOYMENT
Client
The S3 Drive application was installed on two client machines:
• O/S: Microsoft Windows 10 Pro Standard Install
• RAM: 16GB
• CPU: 8
• HDD: 500GB (SSD)
Other software installed:
• Microsoft Office 2016 - used for functional testing
• Fiddler 4 - used for identifying HTTP calls to IBM COS and for timing tests
• Python - used for scripting operating system calls
• Boto 3 - used for scripting S3 calls in Python
Load Balancer
An NGINX load balancer was used for IM COS On-Premise.
STORAGE MADE EASY S3 DRIVE
The S3 Drive enables users to mount and interact with IBM Cloud Object Storage as a local disk. For
configuration information see Appendix A.
FUNCTIONAL TESTING
The objective of S3 Drive functional testing was to:
• Verify compatibility with IBM Cloud Object Storage for both on premise and public cloud storage.
• Map S3 Drive user interactions to one or more IBM COS HTTP operations for capacity planning and
budgeting.
• Validate and document any recommendations for optimum performance.
The S3 Drive tests were performed manually through the Windows 10 File Explorer and with
Microsoft Office applications. The S3 Drive Cache was cleared before each test (Settings > Browse >
Delete all).
S3 Drive Operations
Create Root Folder – creates bucket Browse Folder
Delete Root Folder – removes bucket Upload Folder
Browse root-level folders – list all buckets Download Folder
Create Subfolder Copy folder
Remove Subfolder - hierarchy (with files) Rename File
Upload File Rename Folder
Download File Refresh (access from tray icon)
Word - Save new document Excel - Save new document
Word - Edit document Excel - Edit document

4. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 4
PERFORMANCE TESTING
The objective of S3 Drive performance testing was to:
• Calculate throughput to assist with recommendations of appropriate use cases
• Validate and document any recommendations for optimum performance.
A single workload was creating consisting of 161 files in 17 folders, ranging in size
from 1MiB to 1GiB. Total workload size was 10.4 GiB (11,161,589,120 bytes). The
S3 Drive Cache was cleared before each test (Settings > Browse > Delete all).
Transfer and *Effective Transfer rates for S3 Drive
Rename and Delete operations were executed without data transfer between the
S3 Explorer and IBM COS.
Observations:
• Uploads are multi-threaded. Other operations are single-threaded.
S3 Drive Mixed Workload MiB/sec
Test On Prem US South US Region
Upload 110 48 27
Download 20 15 13
Rename* 104 45 34
Delete* 2,129 560 138
* Effective speed (no data transferred)
STORAGE
MADE EASY
S3 DRIVE

5. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 5
STORAGE MADE EASY S3 EXPLORER
The S3 Explorer desktop application allows users to interact with IBM Cloud
Object Storage through a familiar file explorer like interface.
For configuration information see Appendix B.
FUNCTIONAL TESTING
The objective of S3 Explorer functional testing was to:
• Verify compatibility with IBM Cloud Object Storage for both on premise and
public cloud storage.
• Map S3 Explorer user interactions to one or more IBM COS HTTP operations for
capacity planning and budgeting.
• Validate and document any recommendations for optimum performance.
Testing was successful against IBM COS - both on premise and public cloud
storage.
Features
Create Root Folder - creates bucket Copy file
Delete Root Folder – removes bucket Copy folder
View Root items (buckets) Move file
Create Subfolder Move folder
Remove Subfolder - file hierarchy Rename File
Upload File Rename Folder
Download File Bucket Search
Browse Folder Sort files (name, modified, size)
Upload Folder Properties (root folder or file only)
Download Folder - file hierarchy

6. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 6
PERFORMANCE TESTING
161 files, 17 folders, ranging in size from 1MB to 1GB. Total 10.4 GiB
(11,161,589,120 bytes).
Transfer and *Effective Transfer rates for S3 Explorer
Copy, Rename and Delete operations were executed without data transfer
between the S3 Explorer and IBM COS.
S3 Explorer Mixed Workload MiB/sec
MiB/sec On Prem US South US Region
Upload 46 23 12
Download 59 22 21
Copy* 110 50 37
Rename* 108 45 34
Delete* 2,661 484 201
* Effective speed (no data transferred)
STORAGE
MADE EASY
S3 EXPLORER

7. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 7
APPENDIX A - S3 DRIVE CONFIGURATION
To connect to cloud storage the S3 Drive requires:
• Endpoint - HTTPS was used for testing. HTTP is also supported.
• Access Key
• Secret Key
Default installation settings were used:

8. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 8
APPENDIX B - S3 EXPLORER CONFIGURATION
To connect to cloud storage the S3 Drive requires:
• Endpoint - HTTPS was used for testing. HTTP also supported.
• Access Key
• Secret Key
All other settings were defaults after installation.

9. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 9
APPENDIX C – MAPPING OF S3 DRIVE FUNCTIONS TO IBM COS OPERATIONS
S3 Drive Operation IBM COS Operations
Create Root Folder – creates bucket PUT
Delete Root Folder – removes bucket GET (bucket)
GET (contents of bucket to possibly delete)
DELETE (bucket)
Browse root-level folders – list all buckets GET
Create Subfolder PUT
Remove Subfolder - hierarchy (with files) GET
For each subfolder:
DELETE
HEAD /<subfolder>/
HEAD /<subfolder> For each file:
DELETE GET /<bucket>
Upload File PUT
Download File For each file: GET
HEAD
Browse Folder HEAD
Upload Folder PUT
Download Folder For each file:
GET
HEAD
Copy folder PUT folder
GET folder
For each file:
GET
PUT (x-amz-copy-source)
Rename File GET
PUT
DELETE
Rename Folder For each file:
GET
PUT (x-amz-copy-source)
DELETE
Refresh (access from tray icon) GET

10. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 10
APPENDIX C – MAPPING OF S3 DRIVE FUNCTIONS TO IBM COS OPERATIONS
Feature Notes
Word - Save new document HEAD
PUT
Word - Edit document HEAD - if in cache, is it out of date?
GET - if not in cache, or cache out of date
PUT
HEAD
Excel - Save new document HEAD
HEAD
PUT
HEAD
Excel - Edit document HEAD - if in cache, is it out of date?
GET - if not in cache, or cache out of date
PUT
HEAD

11. SOLUTION GUIDE | © Copyright Storage Made Easy® 2019 11
APPENDIX D–MAPPING OF S3 EXPLORER FUNCTIONS TO IBM COS OPERATIONS
Feature Notes
Create Root Folder - creates bucket PUT
Delete Root Folder – removes bucket GET (bucket)
GET (contents of bucket to possibly delete)
DELETE (bucket)
GET / (refresh explorer listing)
View Root items (buckets) GET
Create Subfolder PUT
Remove Subfolder - file hierarchy GET /<bucket>
Upload File PUT
GET (refresh parent folder)
Download File GET
Browse Folder GET (contents cached for period of time)
Upload Folder GET (refresh parent)
Download Folder - file hierarchy GET
Copy file PUT (x-amz-copy-source)
Copy folder PUT (x-amz-copy-source)
Move file GET folder
For each file:
PUT (x-amz-copy-source)
DELETE
Move folder GET folder
For each file:
PUT (x-amz-copy-source)
DELETE
DELETE folder
Rename File PUT (x-amz-copy-source)
DELETE
Rename Folder GET folder
For each file:
PUT (x-amz-copy-source)
DELETE
Bucket Search GET (for each 1,000 objects)
Sort files (name, modified, size) None (client-side only)
Properties (root folder or file only) HEAD

12. ABOUT
STORAGE MADE EASY®
The Storage Made Easy Enterprise File Fabric™ enables IT to regain control of
"cloud data sprawl" to unify on-premises and on-cloud files into a single easily
managed converged infrastructure with policy-based controls for governance,
audit and security.
The File Fabric solution provides a “blanket” enterprises wrap around all their
data: on premises, within public and private clouds, as well as on third-party
software vendor clouds (SharePoint Online and Salesforce for example).
Customers use the SME File Fabric product to unify corporate data to enable
workgroup collaboration with universal controls for security, encryption, audit,
and data access. Companies will have access to a greater understanding of
where and how sensitive data is stored, transferred, and accessible
with particular focus on how companies are able to police and audit data to
ensure enforcement of the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) in
addition to other regional data legislation.
USA +1 415 477 1053
UK +44 20 8212 7316
EU +41 435 080 078
sales@storagemadeeasy.com
Free hosted and enterprise trials available from
www.storagemadeeasy.com
@SMEStorage
/StorageMadeEasy
/company/storage-made-easy