Embodiments of the present invention provide a file storage system, an apparatus, and a file access method. The system includes a storage management apparatus and an adapter, where the storage management apparatus is configured to receive an operation instruction sent by a user interface apparatus and send a invoking command to the adapter according to the operation instruction, and the adapter controls, according to the invoking command, a public cloud storage system to perform a file storage or read operation and return a operation result. The technical solutions of the present invention are implemented based on existing public cloud storage and cloud computing technologies and have advantages of low construction complexity and ease of implementation.