Table of contents
Introduction
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) offers different storage classes, each designed to optimize costs and performance based on specific use cases and access patterns. Choosing the right storage class for your data can help you optimize storage costs while meeting your performance and durability requirements. As of my knowledge cutoff date in January 2022, the following are the primary storage classes available in Amazon S3:
Standard Storage Class:
Description: Provides high durability, availability, and low-latency performance for frequently accessed data.
Use Cases: Suitable for frequently accessed data, such as data analytics, mobile and gaming applications, and content distribution.
Intelligent-Tiering Storage Class:
Description: Automatically moves objects between two access tiers (frequent and infrequent access) based on changing access patterns. It uses machine learning to optimize costs.
Use Cases: Appropriate for data with unknown or changing access patterns. Automatically adjusts storage costs based on access frequency.
Standard-IA (Infrequent Access) Storage Class:
Description: Designed for infrequently accessed data with lower storage costs than the Standard class. Retrieval fees apply when accessing data.
Use Cases: Suitable for data that is accessed less frequently but still requires low-latency performance when accessed.
One Zone-IA Storage Class:
Description: Similar to Standard-IA but stores data in a single availability zone, providing lower costs but with reduced durability compared to the Standard and Standard-IA classes.
Use Cases: Suitable for data that can be recreated or is non-critical, providing cost savings with a single availability zone durability model.
Glacier Storage Class:
Description: Provides very low-cost storage for data archiving and long-term backup. Retrieval times can be several hours.
Use Cases: Suitable for data archiving and long-term storage where retrieval times are not critical.
Glacier Deep Archive Storage Class:
Description: Offers the lowest-cost storage for long-term archival with even longer retrieval times compared to the Glacier storage class.
Use Cases: Suitable for data that is rarely accessed and has very low retrieval requirements.
Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS) (Deprecated):
- Note: The Reduced Redundancy Storage class has been deprecated, and new customers can no longer use it. Existing users are encouraged to migrate to other storage classes.