Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is a popular cloud storage service part of the Amazon Web Services (AWS). Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is an AWS web-based storage service for archiving and backing up data online. Users can store, retrieve, and protect any amount of data from any location at any time.
However, terminology and methodology may cause confusion and difficulty for new Amazon S3 users. Where is S3 data kept? What is the Amazon S3 storage model? This blog post explains the fundamental concepts and operation of Amazon S3 cloud storage.
It is recommended that you perform regular backups regardless of the platform or service you use for data storage. Don’t forget to backup your AWS EC2. All types of data, including virtual machines, EC2 instances, databases, and individual files, can be backed up to Amazon S3.
Amazon S3 Advantages
- Amazon S3 is designed for 99.99% uptime. Users can select an AWS region to store their data in order to reduce latency and costs.
- Amazon S3 allows users to store data as needed and scales storage as needed.
- Amazon S3 replicates data across multiple facilities and multiple devices within each facility, making it extremely long-lasting.
- Amazon S3 supports multipart uploads, which improves network throughput and resilience.
- Amazon S3 operates on a pay-per-use model, allowing users to store large data sets at a low cost.
Amazon S3 Storage Classes
Amazon S3 comes in the following range of storage classes:
Amazon S3 Standard:
Stores frequently accessed objects with high availability and durability; has low latency and high throughput performance; is backed by an Amazon S3 service-level agreement for availability; is ideal for dynamic websites, cloud and mobile applications, and file storage; and has S3 Lifecycle management for automatic object transitions between S3 storage classes.
Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Is designed for 99.99% availability and 11 9’s of durability. Has the same low latency and high throughput performance as S3 Standard. Includes a small monthly monitoring and auto-tiering fee. Is ideal for long-lived data with unpredictable access patterns. Moves objects automatically between two access tiers based on changing access patterns.
Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (IA)
Stores objects that are accessed less frequently Is designed for 99.99% availability and 11 9’s of durability Has the same low latency and high throughput performance as S3 Standard Has a low price per GB of storage Is ideal for long-term storage, backups, and as a data store for disaster recovery files Is ideal for long-term storage, backups, and as a data store for disaster recovery files.
Amazon S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access (IA)
Stores data in a single AZ and costs 20% less than S3 Standard-IA Has a low price per GB of storage Is ideal for customers who want a lower cost option for infrequently accessed data Is good for storing secondary backup copies of on-premises data.
Amazon S3 Glacier
Is a secure, durable, and low-cost storage class for archiving rarely accessed data. It offers three configurable retrieval options ranging from minutes to hours. It has a lower per GB storage price and per GB retrieval fee. It offers a secure vault lock feature that enforces compliance. It ensures data is resilient in the event of an entire Availability Zone (Az) destruction.
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive
Is the least expensive storage class that supports long-term retention and digital preservation Stores data that may be accessed once or twice a year Is used for backup and disaster recovery Ensures data is replicated and stored in at least three geographically dispersed AZs Ensures data is retrieved within 12 hours Is suitable for customers in highly regulated industries that retain data for many years.
Performance across the S3 Storage Classes
| S3 Standard | S3 Intelligent-Tiering* | S3 Standard-IA | S3 One Zone-IA† | S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval | S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval | S3 Glacier Deep Archive | |
| Designed for durability | 99.999999999% (11 9’s) | 99.999999999% (11 9’s) | 99.999999999% (11 9’s) | 99.999999999% (11 9’s) | 99.999999999% (11 9’s) | 99.999999999% (11 9’s) | 99.999999999% (11 9’s) |
| Designed for availability | 99.99% | 99.9% | 99.9% | 99.5% | 99.9% | 99.99% | 99.99% |
| Availability SLA | 99.9% | 99% | 99% | 99% | 99% | 99.9% | 99.9% |
| Availability Zones | ≥3 | ≥3 | ≥3 | 1 | ≥3 | ≥3 | ≥3 |
| Minimum capacity charge per object | N/A | N/A | 128 KB | 128 KB | 128 KB | 40 KB | 40 KB |
| Minimum storage duration charge | N/A | N/A | 30 days | 30 days | 90 days | 90 days | 180 days |
| Retrieval charge | N/A | N/A | per GB retrieved | per GB retrieved | per GB retrieved | per GB retrieved | per GB retrieved |
| First byte latency | milliseconds | milliseconds | milliseconds | milliseconds | milliseconds | minutes or hours | hours |
| Storage type | Object | Object | Object | Object | Object | Object | Object |
| Lifecycle transitions | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
In the next blog I will discuss some more interesting things about AWS S3 storage.