**Why comparison matters**: Choice affects cost model, elasticity, and ops. **HDFS**: Scale by adding nodes; fixed cluster size; data locality for compute. Throughput limited by cluster; replication = 3x storage. **Cloud (S3, GCS)**: Effectively unlimited scale; pay-per-use; no cluster to manage. High throughput with proper concurrency; no locality (network fetch). **Scalability trade-offs**: HDFS = predictable perf with locality; cloud = elastic but network latency....
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