The DataOps team at RSHB's AI Lab evaluated three S3-compatible storage solutions to replace MinIO following its shift to a restrictive commercial model. The bank tested the Russian commercial product Zakroma, along with open-source alternatives RustFS and SeaweedFS, using MinIO as a performance benchmark.
The evaluation focused on S3 API compatibility, STS and IAM support, encryption methods, and overall stability. While all candidates supported basic boto3 operations, they showed varying levels of integration with the bank's internal rail_connectors library and authentication systems like Keycloak.
Performance testing revealed distinct profiles: SeaweedFS demonstrated superior read speeds, while RustFS excelled in write-heavy scenarios, recording 255 MB/s in multi-threaded 10 GB file uploads. Zakroma, a microservices-based architecture, showed performance potential in clustered configurations despite initial overhead.
The bank requires Apache 2.0 licensing to ensure long-term flexibility and avoid vendor lock-in. The team noted that while MinIO remains a functional benchmark, its recent removal of the web console and official Docker images from the community edition prompted the search for more sustainable infrastructure.
