Amazon S3 - Object Storage

70 min

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is a highly scalable object storage service designed to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web. S3 provides 99.999999999% (11 9's) durability and stores data across multiple facilities and devices. S3 is designed for 99.99% availability and can scale to store virtually unlimited amounts of data, making it ideal for backup, archival, data lakes, and content distribution.

S3 organizes data into buckets (containers) and objects (files). Bucket names must be globally unique across all AWS accounts and regions. Objects are stored with a key (name) and can be up to 5 terabytes in size. S3 provides a simple web service interface to store and retrieve data using standard HTTP/HTTPS protocols. The REST API enables programmatic access from any application.

S3 offers multiple storage classes optimized for different access patterns and cost requirements. Standard storage provides high durability and availability for frequently accessed data. Standard-IA (Infrequent Access) is for data accessed less frequently but requiring rapid access. Glacier and Glacier Deep Archive provide low-cost archival storage for long-term retention. Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves data between access tiers based on usage patterns.

S3 versioning enables you to preserve, retrieve, and restore every version of every object in a bucket. Versioning protects against accidental overwrites and deletions, allowing you to recover previous versions of objects. When versioning is enabled, S3 stores multiple versions of objects, each with a unique version ID. This feature is essential for data protection and compliance requirements.

S3 lifecycle policies automate the transition of objects between storage classes and deletion of objects based on age. Lifecycle policies can move objects to cheaper storage classes after a specified period or delete objects that are no longer needed. This automation reduces storage costs without manual intervention, making S3 cost-effective for long-term data storage.

S3 provides additional features including cross-region replication for disaster recovery, server-side encryption for data security, access logging for audit trails, and static website hosting. S3 integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, serving as data storage for applications, backup destination, and content delivery source. Understanding S3's features enables you to build robust, cost-effective storage solutions.

Key Concepts

S3 provides scalable object storage with high durability and availability.
S3 organizes data into buckets (containers) and objects (files).
Storage classes optimize costs for different access patterns.
Versioning preserves multiple versions of objects for data protection.
Lifecycle policies automate storage class transitions and deletions.

Learning Objectives

Master

Creating and managing S3 buckets and objects
Understanding and using different S3 storage classes
Configuring versioning and lifecycle policies
Implementing S3 security and access control

Develop

Understanding cloud storage architecture
Designing cost-effective data storage strategies
Implementing data protection and backup solutions

Tips

Use bucket policies for fine-grained access control instead of ACLs when possible.
Enable versioning for production buckets to protect against data loss.
Use lifecycle policies to automatically transition objects to cheaper storage classes.
Enable server-side encryption (SSE) for data security at rest.

Common Pitfalls

Not enabling versioning, losing ability to recover from accidental deletions.
Using wrong storage class, paying more than necessary for storage.
Making buckets public unnecessarily, exposing data to security risks.
Not using lifecycle policies, accumulating storage costs over time.

Summary

S3 provides scalable, durable object storage for any data type.
Storage classes optimize costs based on access patterns.
Versioning and lifecycle policies automate data management.
S3 integrates with many AWS services for comprehensive solutions.

Exercise

Create S3 buckets, upload files, and configure bucket policies.

# Create an S3 bucket
aws s3 mb s3://my-unique-bucket-name-12345

# Upload a file to S3
echo "Hello, S3!" > hello.txt
aws s3 cp hello.txt s3://my-unique-bucket-name-12345/

# List objects in bucket
aws s3 ls s3://my-unique-bucket-name-12345/

# Create a bucket policy for public read access
cat > bucket-policy.json << 'EOF'
{
    "Version": "2012-10-17",
    "Statement": [
        {
            "Sid": "PublicReadGetObject",
            "Effect": "Allow",
            "Principal": "*",
            "Action": "s3:GetObject",
            "Resource": "arn:aws:s3:::my-unique-bucket-name-12345/*"
        }
    ]
}
EOF

# Apply the bucket policy
aws s3api put-bucket-policy --bucket my-unique-bucket-name-12345 --policy file://bucket-policy.json

Exercise Tips

Use S3 Transfer Acceleration for faster uploads over long distances.
Enable S3 server access logging to track bucket access and usage.
Use S3 inventory to track objects and their metadata for management.
Configure CORS for web applications that need cross-origin S3 access.

Amazon S3 - Object Storage