Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is a cloud-based object storage solution from Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is one of the most popular and reliable cloud storage services available, offering secure, durable, and highly scalable object storage at reasonable prices. S3 provides users with three different storage classes – Standard, Infrequent Access (IA), and Glacier – to meet different data access and archival needs.
Standard Storage
Standard S3 storage is for frequently accessed data that requires rapid access when needed. It offers low latency and immediate consistency. All requests are served directly from the cache with reads coming from multiple Availability Zones (AZs) before relying on the origin. Objects stored in standard storage are redundantly stored across multiple AZs within an AWS Region. This ensures high availability and durability, as well as quick retrieval times. To keep storage costs low, S3 offers an automatic lifecycle feature that enables users to transition their data to other storage classes when appropriate.
Infrequent Access (IA) Storage
IA storage is designed for data that is accessed less frequently, but still requires rapid access when needed. With IA storage, you can store larger amounts of data at a lower cost than standard storage. Unlike standard storage, IA objects are stored redundantly across multiple AZs, but only within a single AWS region. This means that IA objects may take longer to retrieve since they may not be stored closer to consumers.
Glacier Storage
Glacier is the lowest-cost storage class offered by S3, but it also has the slowest access time. Glacier is best suited for long-term archival of infrequently accessed data, such as backups, media assets, and documents. Objects stored in Glacier are redundantly stored across multiple AZs, but only within a single region. Retrieval times range from 3-5 hours, depending on the size of the object. Glacier also offers an additional layer of security by allowing users to encrypt their data using server-side encryption.
