Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) in Cloud Computing

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) in Cloud Computing

Every business needs to store and manage data in order to function properly.

Applications must run smoothly, content must be available constantly, data needs to be easily accessible and backups must be successfully stored.

There’s no longer a need to spend money on unnecessary hardware and to hire a team of experts for every single thing. Amazon S3 is a solution that takes care of everything.

What is Amazon S3?

Amazon Simple Storage Service, commonly referred to as S3, is a simple web service that makes it easy to upload and store large amounts of data in the cloud. It is one of many AWS storage services and is primarily used for object storage. By using Amazon S3, your data will be safe and easily accessible.

The quality of the infrastructure ensures that the data stored in the objects are constantly available and durable. Amazon S3 can come in handy for a variety of cases, whether you're dealing with mobile or web applications, machine learning, big data, or something similar.

Customers and companies, regardless of size, can use Amazon S3's storage classes and features to organize more effectively, optimize costs, avoid risks, and configure specific settings. With properly stored and easy-to-use data, you ensure excellent conditions for successful business development.

How Does It Work?

Let's note once again that Amazon S3 is an object storage service. This means that it is different from other types of storage such as file and block storage.

In S3, each object is assigned an ID that applications need if they want to access its information, while with file storage, information can be accessed through the rest API.

In order to further understand how S3 works, it is important to clarify the following terms:

Objects

Objects are the basic entities within Amazon S3. They consist of data and metadata.

There's default metadata, such as last modified or content type, but you can also define custom metadata when storing the object.

Each object is identified within the bucket by its key (name) and ID.

Buckets

Buckets are used to store objects. Let's say an object called photos/data.jpg is stored in the johndoe bucket. That means that it can be accessed through the URL: http://johndoe.s3.amazonaws.com/photos/data.jpg.

Buckets serve multiple purposes:

• Organizing Amazon's S3 namespace at the highest level
• Identification of the account responsible for storage and data transfer charges
• Aggregation for usage reporting
• Access control

Each bucket must have a unique name. You can have a maximum of 100 buckets within one AWS account.

Storage classes

Amazon S3 has a total of 7 storage classes:

• S3 Standard - great for data that is accessed very often. Low latency and high throughput are the main characteristics of this class.
• S3 Standard-IA - offers a lower price for storing data that is not used often, but must be quickly accessible. Perfect for backups, etc.
• S3 Intelligent-Tiering - most useful for data whose access needs change frequently.
• S3 One Zone-IA - designed for data that will not be accessed often, but provides unhindered access in times of need.
• S3 Glacier - primarily intended for archiving. This means that it takes longer to access the data.
• S3 Glacier Deep Archive - designed for data that is accessed a maximum of 2 times a year. Data access is slow, which is precisely why this is the cheapest storage class.
• S3 Outposts - ideal when performance needs require data to be stored alongside on-premise applications.

Conclusion

Amazon S3 is a great solution for any cloud-based business. Excellent infrastructure and multiple storage classes are just some of the advantages of this well-known service.

If you want to know more about cloud migration, cloud technology in general, AWS cloud, or you want to try AWS services:

• visit our cloud migration service page;
• give us a call at +385 1 3141 562;
• contact our sales department at sales@heptabit.com.

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