Amazon S3 – Storage Classes

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is used for storing data in the form of objects S3 is quite different from any other file storage device or service. Amazon S3 also provides industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance. The data which is uploaded by the user in S3, that data is stored as objects and provided an ID. Moreover, they store in shapes like buckets and can upload a maximum file size of 5 terabytes (TB). This service is basically designed for the online backup and archiving of data and applications on Amazon Web Services (AWS).

Amazon S3 Storage Classes: An Overview

Amazon S3 offers different storage classes based on your cost and performance based on the business needs you can choose the exact storage class required the default storage class is a standard class where the data can be accessed frequently whenever it is required, Interlligent tier is one of the tier which is mainly used for the data with unknow pattern will be stored in the Intelligent-Tiering where the data will be changed from access tiers-frequent and infrequent access patterns.

Understanding Storage Classes and Their Role in Cost Management

S3 storage classes play a major role in cost-effective management different storage classes will have different access patterns. You can choose the storage classes based on the requirement depending on the latency and throughput performance.

Key Characteristics of Amazon S3 Storage Classes

Following are some of the key characteristics of Amazon S3 storage.

• Durability and Availability
• Access Latency and Performance
• Cost-Effectiveness
• Data Retrieval Options
• Security and Encryption

Amazon S3 Storage Classes

This storage maintains the originality of data by inspecting it. Types of storage classes are as follows:

• Amazon S3 Standard
• Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
• Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access
• Amazon S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access
• Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval
• Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval
• Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive

1. S3 Standard: The Go-to for Frequently Accessed Data

It is used for general purposes and offers high durability, availability, and performance object storage for frequently accessed data. S3 Standard is appropriate for a wide variety of use cases, including cloud applications, dynamic websites, content distribution, mobile and gaming applications, and big data analytics.

Mainly it is used for general purposes in order to maintain durability, availability, and performance to a higher extent. Its applications are cloud applications, dynamic websites, content distribution, mobile & gaming apps as well as big data analysis or data mining.

Ideal Use Cases for S3 Standard

Amazoln S3 standard storage class is the versatile and widely used storage class in amazon S3. Following are the some of the use cases of Amazon S3 standard class.

• Hosting Static Websites.
• Serving Content Distribution Networks (CDNs).
• Storing Frequently Accessed Data.
• Building Data Lakes and Data Warehouses.
• Backing Up Data.
• Serving Mobile and Gaming Applications.

Characteristics of  S3 Standard

• Availability criteria are quite good like 99.9%.
• Improves the recovery of an object file.
• It is against the events which are a little bit tough that can affect an entire Availability Zone.
•  Durability of S3 standard is 99.999999999%.

2. S3 Intelligent-Tiering: Automated Cost Optimization for Data with Unknown Access Patterns

The first cloud storage automatically decreases the user’s storage cost. It provides very cost-effective access based on frequency, without affecting other performances. It also manages tough operations. Amazon S3 Intelligent – Tiering reduces the cost of granular objects automatically. No retrieval charges are there in Amazon S3 Intelligent – Tiering.

Characteristics of  S3 Intelligent-Tiering

• Required less monitoring and automatically tier charge.
• No minimum storage duration and no recovery charges are required to access the service.
• Availability criteria are quite good like 99.9%.
• Durability of S3 Intelligent- Tiering is 99.999999999%.

3. S3 Standard-Infrequent Access: Cost-Effective Storage for Less Frequently Used Data

To access the less frequently used data, users use S3 Standard-IA. It requires rapid access when needed. We can achieve high strength, high output, and low bandwidth by using S3 Standard-IA. It is best in storing the backup, and recovery of data for a long time. It act as a data store for disaster recovery files.

Identifying Suitable Data for S3 Standard-Infrequent Access

To choose which type of data is suitable for the for S3 standard-infrequent access.

• Access Frequency
• Data Size
• Access Latency Requirements
• Data Durability Requirements

Characteristics of  S3 Standard-Infrequent Access

• High performance and same action rate.
• Very Durable in all AZs.
• Availability is 99.9% in S3 Standard-IA.
• Durability is  of 99.999999999%.

4. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval: High-Performance Archiving with Rapid Retrieval

It is an archive storage class that delivers the lowest-cost storage for data archiving and is organized to provide you with the highest performance and with more flexibility. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval delivers the fastest access to archive storage. Same as in S3 standard, Data retrieval in milliseconds .

Characteristics of S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval

• It just takes milliseconds to recover the data.
• The minimum object size should be 128KB.
• Availability is 99.9% in S3 glacier Instant Retrieval.
• Durability is of  99.999999999%.

5. S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access: Cost-Optimized Storage for Single Availability Zone

Different from other S3 Storage Classes which store data in a minimum of three Availability Zones, S3 One Zone-IA stores data in a single Availability Zone and costs 20% less than S3 Standard-IA. It’s a very good choice for storing secondary backup copies of on-premises data or easily re-creatable data. S3 One Zone-IA provides you the same high durability, high throughput, and low latency as in S3 Standard.

Characteristics of S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access

• Supports SSL(Secure Sockets Layer) for data in transferring and encryption of data.
• Availability Zone destruction can damage the data.
• Availability is 99.5% in S3 one Zone- Infrequent Access.
• Durability is of  99.999999999%.

6.S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval: Balancing Cost and Retrieval Flexibility for Archiving

It provides low-cost storage compared to S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval. It is a suitable solution for backing up the data so that it can be recovered easily a few times in a year. It just takes minutes to access the data. 

Characteristics of S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval

• Free recoveries in high quantity.
• AZs destruction can lead to difficulty in accessing data.
• when you have to retrieve large data sets , then S3 glacier flexible retrieval is best for backup and disaster recovery use cases.
• Availability is 99.99% in S3 glacier flexible retrieval.
• Durability is of  99.999999999%.

7. Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive

The Glacier Deep Archive storage class is designed to provide long-lasting and secure long-term storage for large amounts of data at a price that is competitive with off-premises tape archival services that is very cheap. You no longer need to deal with expensive services. Accessibility is very much efficient, that it can restore data within 12 hours. This storage class is designed in such a way that users can easily get long-lasting and more secured storage for a huge amount of data at very less cost. Efficient accessibility and can restore data within very less time, therefore its time complexity is also efficient. S3 Glacier Deep Archive also have the feature of objects replication.

Characteristics of S3 Glacier Deep Archive

• More secured storage.
• Recovery time is less requires less time.
• Availability is 99.99% in S3 glacier deep archive.
• Durability is of  99.999999999%.

FAQs On the Amazon S3 – Storage Classes

1. Amazon Storage Classes Pricing

Depending on the type of storage classes the pricing will be varied.

• S3 Standard: Storage cost $0.00059 per GB per month
• S3 Intelligent-Tiering: Storage cost $0.00012 per GB per month
• S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (IA): Storage Cost $0.00063 per GB per month
• S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access (IA): $0.00048 per GB per month

2. Amazon S3 Storage Classes Are Optimized For Archival Data

Yes, data that is viewed infrequently can be stored on Amazon S3 Glacier storage category. Compared to other S3 storage classes, these classes have greater retrieval times but have the lowest storage costs.

3. AWS S3 Storage Classes Lifecycle

When objects are no longer commonly accessed, S3 Lifecycle can be used to control their lifecycle and lower storage costs by moving them to less expensive storage classes.

• S3 Standard
• S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (IA)
• S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access (IA)
• S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval
• S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval
• S3 Glacier Deep Archive