Storage Services in AWS

 

In this article, we will explore Simple Storage Service(S3), Elastic Block Storage(EBS). Elastic File Storage(EFS) storage services offered by AWS.

Simple Storage Service (S3)

In S3, data is stored as ‘objects’, which is analogous to a file. Buckets are similar to file folders in which objects are stored. S3 is a highly scalable and durable storage service. Data stored in S3 can be accessed over the internet using HTTP. S3 is ideal for use cases such as hosting websites, archives, storing large amounts of data such as images and videos and backups. Following are some of the important features of S3

• Scalability- S3 provides unlimited storage and with each object size  up to 5TB. This makes S3 ideal for use cases which requires storing large amounts of data i.e. images, videos, backups etc.
• Durability - S3 provides 99.999999999 %(11 9s) of data durability making it very robust storage. Additionally, data stored in S3 is redundantly copied to at least 3 different availability zones, safeguarding your data from  disaster. 
• Cost and Performance - Data in S3 can be stored in various storage classes (e.g. S3 Standard, S3 Intelligent Tiering, S3 One Zone etc.) to meet different access  needs and budgets. S3 Intelligent Tiering allows you to save the cost of storage by automatically moving the data (at object level) across different storage classes based on the access frequency. 
• Storage management - S3 provides tools to replicate the objects from one bucket to another or across different AWS regions, configure the lifecycle to delete objects or move it from one storage class to another.  Also, data can be automatically replicated to another bucket in the same or different region. 
• Security - S3 supports various options to encrypt the data in transit and rest. 

Elastic Block Storage

EBS volume is similar to a hard drive that you can attach to your EC2 instance. EBS volumes are created in a specific availability zone and can only be attached to EC2 instances in that availability zone. You can attach multiple EBS volumes to a single EC2 instance. Data stored in EBS volumes can only be accessed through EC2 to which it is attached. EBS is ideal for use cases that require quick access to the data or long persistent storage such as creating your file systems, databases or applications that need access to storage attached to virtual machines (EC2). Following are the important features of EBS.

• Durability: IO2 Block express provides durability of 99.999% and all other EBS volumes are designed to provide durability of 99.8 to 99.9%.
• Price and Performance- EBS is available in 2 types to meet various pricing and performance needs.
• SSD backed volumes: It is optimized for workload which requires frequent access to data, for example databases.. They are further classified as Provisioned IOPS (io2,io1) and General Purpose SSD (gp3 and gp2). 
• HDD backed volumes : It is optimized for workloads that require infrequent data to data for example backups and archives.  They are further classified as Throughput Optimized(st1)  and Cold HDD (sc1)). 
• Snapshot in EBS  allows you to take point in time backup of your volume and store it on AWS S3 for long term storage. 
• Data management : Using the AWS data lifecycle manager, you can manage schedules for creating and deleting snapshots. Alternatively, you can create a lifecycle policy to create and delete snapshots. 
• Scaling:  Elastic Volume feature in EBS allows resizing the capacity of the volume without any downtime. It also allows you to change the type of the volume for example from gp3 to io2. 
• Security: Data in the volume can  be encrypted at rest to meet security needs.  
• Monitoring: You can monitor the performance (throughput, IOPS etc.) of the EBS volume through AWS CloudWatch. 

Elastic File Storage

EFS is a fully managed storage solution which provides shared data access using the NFSv4 protocol. It takes out the complexity of deploying and managing the file systems. EFS can be accessed simultaneously by multiple EC2 instances. EFS is also accessible through other AWS services such as EKS and ECS. Following are some of the important features of EFS

• Redundancy: EFS supports 2 types of redundancy i.e. at Regional and One Zone. When an EFS file system is deployed within a region, files are redundantly stored at another availability zone ensuring availability of data in case of failure of one of the availability zones. When an EFS file system is deployed in One Zone,  data stored within a single availability zone may be lost in event of a damage. 
• Storage Classes: EFS is available in 3 storage classes below to support different frequency of data access
  • Standard - Data is stored in SSD drives and provides low levels of latency for frequently accessed data. 
  • Infrequent access - This storage provides cost saving compared to Standard class and is useful when data is accessed infrequently for example once a quarter. 
  • Archive - This class provides the most cost savings but is useful for use cases that require access to data once or twice a year for example backup data. 
• Durability: Both EFS regional and One Zone file systems are designed to provide 99.999999999(11 9’s) of durability. 
• Scaling : EFS scales the capacity of the file system up or down dynamically up to petabytes size based on the demand.            ,