Storing Data with Amazon S3

Amazon S3's storage classes let you match cost to access frequency. Understanding which class fits your data — from millisecond retrieval to deep archive — is the key to optimising your cloud storage bill.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is one of the best object storage solutions in the industry. It offers a plethora of different S3 Storage Classes to choose from, and each one serves a different purpose generally based on the frequency of access to the data.

Archival and historical data would use different storage classes when compared to a solution that needs data storage for a static website. S3 objects are kept in S3 buckets, and S3 Storage Classes are configured at the object-level, meaning you can have objects in the same bucket that belong to different storage classes. S3 Lifecycle Policies can be used to automatically move objects between different storage classes.

Generally there is a retrieval fee for data being accessed, and the cost of this retrieval fee normally becomes more expensive when moving from frequently accessed storage classes to archival storage classes.

S3 Storage Classes

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval

S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval is the newest storage class, offering the lowest cost for archival storage while still allowing for instantaneous retrieval times. It gives customers an archival solution with the same high throughput and milliseconds access as the S3 Standard and S3 Standard-IA storage classes. This storage class works well with archival data accessed more than quarterly — medical images, genomic sequences, satellite images, news media assets, and user-generated content.

S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval

Previously known as Amazon S3 Glacier, this class provides lower cost than S3 Standard and S3 Intelligent-Tiering. Data is available within minutes to hours, making it the best solution for backups, disaster recovery, and offsite data storage. It works best for data that does not require immediate access but still needs the flexibility of retrieval options, with free bulk retrievals.

S3 Glacier Deep Archive

Ideal for data only accessed once or twice a year, offering long-term retention and data preservation. S3 Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest storage costs of all S3 options. It's the ideal storage solution for highly regulated industries — financial services, healthcare, and public sectors — that need to retain data for 7–10 years or longer. Retrieval time can be up to 12 hours.

S3 Standard

Amazon S3 Standard is the general-purpose storage class, offering high durability and high throughput with low latency. Data is available instantaneously within milliseconds. It's ideal for cloud-based applications, static and dynamic websites, big data analytics, content distribution, mobile applications and gaming.

S3 Intelligent-Tiering

For data with unknown usage or changing access patterns, S3 Intelligent-Tiering intelligently moves objects between different storage classes based on how frequently the object is being accessed. It chooses the most cost-effective storage class for your data without impacting performance or accumulating retrieval fees.

S3 Standard-IA and S3 One Zone-IA

These storage classes are for data accessed less frequently but that still requires high durability, high throughput, and low latency. They offer a lower per GB storage price and retrieval cost compared to S3 Standard. S3 One Zone-IA stores data in a single Availability Zone and is generally 20% cheaper than S3 Standard-IA. Both are ideal for on-premise backup copies and disaster recovery files.