Beginner’s Guide on AWS (Amazon Web Services) S3 Storage Classes

What is Cloud Storage?

Cloud Storage is a method to store, retrieve and share simple, reliable, and scalable data.

Before AWS S3

Organizations faced a lot of difficulties in storing, time finding, and managing all the data. A lot of storage was required in delivering content to customers, running various applications, and hosting high-traffic websites. Backing up emails, files and documents also required large storage space. The organization’s repository maintenance was also expensive and time-consuming. 

Overview of AWS S3  

S3 stands for Simple Storage Service. It is the most popular service on Amazon. Amazon S3 is an object storage service that stores data in the form of objects within the buckets that facilitate the scalability of data availability, security, performance, and low latency to their customers. Amazon S3 has simple web services which can be used to store and retrieve data from anywhere on the web. It also helps to store an unlimited amount of data and protect data from its breaching while accessing, retrieving or downloading the data. 

AWS S3 Benefits 

• Durability:  S3 provides 99.999999999% durability. 
• Scalability: S3 does not include any hidden costs. You need to pay for the specific resources which you use.  
• Availability: S3 offers 99.99% availability. 
• Security: S3 offers various access management tools and encryption features to provide top-notch security. 
• Flexibility: S3 can be used for data storage, backup and archiving, disaster recovery, website hosting, mobile applications, and much more. 
• User-friendly:  S3 has a simple interface to execute data transfers.  
• Pricing: S3 provides low-cost storage.

AWS S3 Storage Components 

AWS Buckets and Objects 

An object is a combination of data, its key, and metadata.
A bucket is a container that we use to store objects. Whenever we upload data into a bucket, it allocates a unique version ID to the object.  

Creation of a Bucket: 

S3 Storage Classes

• Amazon S3 Standard for frequent data access 
• Amazon S3 Standard for infrequent data access 
• Amazon S3 One Zone – Infrequent Access
• Amazon S3 Intelligent Tiering 

Amazon S3 Standard for frequent data access:

This storage class is suitable for hosting websites, Cloud applications, Mobile apps/games, Web services, and Big Data. 

Properties: 

• High Capacity 
• Low latency 
• High Reliability  

Amazon S3 Standard for infrequent data access:

This storage class has been designed for less frequently accessed data, but with longer storage time. It is suitable for the long storage of files, data recovery, backup, and synchronizing of outdated data. 

Properties: 

• Less Delay 
• High Capacity 
• High Reliability 
• Secure

Amazon S3 One Zone – Infrequent Access:

This can be used where the data is infrequently accessed and stored in a single region. It is 20% less expensive than Amazon S3 Standard IA (Infrequent Access) due to one availability zone.  

Properties: 

• Low latency  
• High performance 
• Durability – 99.999% 
• Availability – 99.5% 

Amazon S3 Intelligent Tiering:

Amazon S3 Intelligent Tiering may or may not be considered a storage class. It monitors and automatically moves your object to the proper cost-effective storage tier. We can also say that Amazon S3 Intelligent Tiering is a storage class automatically moves data between various available storage classes. 

Properties: 

• Provides access in milliseconds  
• No retrieval Fees 
• Object Monitoring Fees
• Durability – 99.999999999%
• Availability – 99.9% 
• More than 3 availability zones 

Conclusion

AWS S3 has different storage classes to store the data for different use cases. Each storage class has its own use case and key features, and you can store your data in any class depending upon the nature of the data and access pattern. This blog gives an overview of AWS S3 storage classes provided by AWS and their use cases.
Learn more about AWS Storage Gateway here: AWS Storage Gateway 

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