On the performance of cloud storage applications with global measurement

Abstract

In recent years, Dropbox, Google, and Microsoft have been competing in the market of consumer cloud storage (CCS) services. While once the key comparative metric, storage capacity per user has outgrown the needs of most users. Today, third-party applications based on CCS's RESTful Web APIs are becoming a primary way for users to utilize their expanded storage resources. Unfortunately, there is very little visibility into the performance of these Web APIs, even though they are primary determinants of the end user experience on these storage applications. In this paper, we report results from a comprehensive measurement study of the Web APIs of five popular CCS providers. Our results reveal significant differences and limitations in API performance, which result in performance bottlenecks visible to the user through the storage application. We analyze the underlying system designs of the five providers' Web APIs, and present the performance implications of their different design choices. Our research provides practical guidance for service providers to optimize their API performance, for developers to improve the experience of third-party applications, and for users to pick appropriate services that best match their requirements.