S3 types of Storage
Tags: aws, beginners, cloud, devops
Published: 2021-08-04 13:43:43

We store files in S3 but we may need different types of storage based on our needs. Like some files that are infrequently accessed some that are needed once a year so paying the same charges as a normal storage does not make sense for these. So, based on our needs AWS has given us various types of storage based on needs.There are 6 types of storage types in AWS S3 

1. **S3 Standard** for general-purpose storage of frequently accessed data
1. **S3 Intelligent-Tiering** for data with unknown or changing access patterns
1. **S3 Standard-Infrequent Access** (S3 Standard-IA)for long-lived, but less frequently accessed data
1. **S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access** (S3 One Zone-IA) for long-lived, but less frequently accessed data
1. **Amazon S3 Glacier** (S3 Glacier) for archives
1. **Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive** (S3 Glacier Deep Archive) for long-term archive and digital preservation.

All these storage classes varies on the availability of our objects in our S3 buckets for usage. Let us study each one of them in detail

## S3 Standard

This is the storage type we have been using until now,it is the default for our S3 buckets. It has low latency and high availability. This is used when the data has a very frequent access. It has very high availability and AWS is bound by the [SLA agreement](https://aws.amazon.com/s3/sla/) on this which makes sure its always highly available. It is used for dynamic websites, content distribution, mobile and gaming applications, and big data analytics.

## S3 Standard-Infrequent Access 

This has 99.9% percent availability. Suitable for data when is accessed less but requires immediate access when needed. It requires less money for storage but whenever we retrieve the objects under this class we have to pay a fee so its not good for frequent access. It is mainly used for  long-term storage, backups, and as a data store for disaster recovery files. 

## S3 Intelligent-Tiering

If you don't know where to put your data in standard access or Infrequent Access. We have this storage class in which S3 automatically stores data according to pour retrieval rates. If data is frequently accessed then it is put in standard storage other wise in Infrequent Access . This is the most cost optimized class if you don't want to think in which class to put your data. It is the ideal storage class for data sets with unknown storage access patterns, like new applications, or unpredictable access patterns, like data lakes. 

## S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access

One Zone-Infrequent Access it has all the same properties of Infrequent access except all the above storage are in 3 availability zones but this storage class is only in one AZ so is prone to disasters. It is ideal for customers who want a lower-cost option for infrequently accessed data but do not require the availability and resilience of S3 Standard or S3 Standard-IA. It’s a good choice for storing secondary backup copies of on-premises data or easily re-creatable data. You can also use it as cost-effective storage for data that is replicated from another AWS Region using S3 Cross-Region Replication. It is normally used for data that you want ti copy across regions as copying it across 3 AZ may not make sense.

## Amazon S3 Glacier

S3 glacier is a very low cost storage available on S3. Normally data stored here is kept for years. you normally use it for data archiving. You can reliably store any amount of data at costs that are competitive with or cheaper than on-premises solutions. It has 3 sub classes of data retrievals available in S3 glacier 
1. Expedited - Data retrieval in 1 to 5 min
1. Standard - Data retrieval in 3 to 5 hours
1. Bulk - Data retrieval in 5 to 12 hours

## Amazon S3 Deep Glacier 

S3 Glacier Deep Archive is Amazon S3’s lowest-cost storage class and supports long-term retention and digital preservation for data that may be accessed once or twice in a year. It is designed for customers — particularly those in highly-regulated industries, such as the Financial Services, Healthcare, and Public Sectors — that retain data sets for 7-10 years or longer to meet regulatory compliance requirements. S3 Glacier Deep Archive can also be used for backup and disaster recovery use cases, and is a cost-effective and easy-to-manage alternative to magnetic tape systems, whether they are on-premises libraries or off-premises services. S3 Glacier Deep Archive complements Amazon S3 Glacier, which is ideal for archives where data is regularly retrieved and some of the data may be needed in minutes. It has 3 sub classes of data retrievals available in S3 deep glacier 
1. Standard - Data retrieval in 12 hours
1. Bulk - Data retrieval in 48 hours


<table>

<tbody>

<tr>

<th> </th>

<th>S3 Standard</th>

<th>S3 Intelligent-Tiering*</th>

<th>S3 Standard-IA</th>

<th>S3 One Zone-IA†</th>

<th>S3 Glacier</th>

<th>S3 Glacier Deep Archive</th>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Designed for durability</td>

<td>99.999999999% (11 9’s)</td>

<td>99.999999999% (11 9’s)</td>

<td>99.999999999% (11 9’s)</td>

<td>99.999999999% (11 9’s)</td>

<td>99.999999999% (11 9’s)</td>

<td>99.999999999% (11 9’s)</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Designed for availability</td>

<td>99.99%</td>

<td>99.9%</td>

<td>99.9%</td>

<td>99.5%</td>

<td>99.99%</td>

<td>99.99%</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Availability SLA</td>

<td>99.9%</td>

<td>99%</td>

<td>99%</td>

<td>99%</td>

<td>99.9%</td>

<td>99.9%</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Availability Zones</td>

<td>≥3</td>

<td>≥3</td>

<td>≥3</td>

<td>1</td>

<td>≥3</td>

<td>≥3</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Minimum capacity charge per object</td>

<td>N/A</td>

<td>N/A</td>

<td>128KB</td>

<td>128KB</td>

<td>40KB</td>

<td>40KB</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Minimum storage duration charge</td>

<td>N/A</td>

<td>30 days</td>

<td>30 days</td>

<td>30 days</td>

<td>90 days</td>

<td>180 days</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Retrieval fee</td>

<td>N/A</td>

<td>N/A</td>

<td>per GB retrieved</td>

<td>per GB retrieved</td>

<td>per GB retrieved</td>

<td>per GB retrieved</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>First byte latency</td>

<td>milliseconds</td>

<td>milliseconds</td>

<td>milliseconds</td>

<td>milliseconds</td>

<td>select minutes or hours</td>

<td>select hours</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Storage type</td>

<td>Object</td>

<td>Object</td>

<td>Object</td>

<td>Object</td>

<td>Object</td>

<td>Object</td>

</tr>

<tr>

<td>Lifecycle transitions</td>

<td>Yes</td>

<td>Yes</td>

<td>Yes</td>

<td>Yes</td>

<td>Yes</td>

<td>Yes</td>

</tr>

</tbody>

</table>


In this article we studies about the various S3 classes in the next article we will study how to use them and move various things into different storage classes.