Architectural Tradeoffs in Migrating Enterprise File Workloads to Object Storage

Abstract

Network File System (NFS)–based storage has been a foundational component of enterprise infrastructure for decades due to its simplicity, shared access model, and POSIX-compliant semantics. However, as organizations modernize infrastructure and migrate workloads to cloud environments, traditional NFS architectures increasingly struggle to meet scalability, availability, and operational efficiency requirements. Object storage services such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) offer high durability, elastic scalability, and managed operations, but differ fundamentally from file-based storage systems. This paper presents a comprehensive architecture for migrating on-premises NFS workloads to Amazon S3 and documents lessons learned from practical migration efforts. The proposed approach addresses architectural adaptation, data transfer mechanisms, application compatibility challenges, performance considerations, and operational tradeoffs. Through controlled experiments and observational analysis, this study evaluates the feasibility of replacing NFS-backed storage with S3-based object storage for selected enterprise workloads. The results highlight both the benefits and limitations of such migrations and provide guidance for organizations considering similar transitions.