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What is AWS Cloud Storage?

AWS storage services are low-cost data storage with high durability and high availability. You also get the option to backing up information, archiving, and disaster recovery.

Cloud Storage Overview

Cloud storage is a cloud computing model that stores data on the Internet through a cloud computing provider that manages and operates data storage as a service. It’s delivered on-demand with just-in-time capacity and costs and eliminates buying and managing your own data storage infrastructure.

There Are 3 Types of Cloud Storage:

  1. Object Storage – Applications developed within the cloud often cash in on object storage’s vast scalability and metadata characteristics. Object storage solutions like Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) and Amazon Glacier are ideal for building modern applications from scratch that need scale and adaptability, and may even be wont to import existing data stores for analytics, backup, or archive.
  2. File Storage – Many applications got to access shared files and need a filing system. this sort of storage is usually supported with a Network Attached Storage (NAS) server. File storage solutions like Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)are ideal to be used in cases like large content repositories, development environments, media stores, or user home directories.
  3. Block Storage – Other enterprise applications like databases or ERP systems often require dedicated, low latency storage for every host. this is often analogous to direct-attached storage (DAS) or a cargo area Network (SAN). Block-based cloud storage solutions like Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) and EC2 Instance Storage

Storage Offered By Amazon Web Services (AWS)

  1. Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) : Amazon S3 the oldest and most supported storage platform of AWS uses an object storage model that is built to store and retrieve any amount of data. Data can be accessed everywhere such as websites, mobile apps, corporate applications, and data from IoT sensors or devices that can be dumped onto S3.
  2. Amazon Glacier : Amazon Glacier is a secure, durable, and extremely low-cost storage service for data archiving and long-term storage. Glacier allows you to run powerful analytics directly on archived data. The glacier can also utilize other AWS storage services such as S3, CloudFront, etc. to move data in and out seamlessly for better and effective results.
  3. Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) : As the name suggests EFS delivers a scalable, elastic, highly available, and highly durable network file system as-a-service. The storage capacity of EFS is elastic and is capable of growing and shrinking automatically depending on the requirement. EFS supports Network File System versions 4 (NFSv4) and 4.1 (NFSv4.1).
  4. Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) : Similar to EFS, EBS volumes are network file systems. Volumes get automatically replicated within Availability Zones for high availability and durability.
  5. EC2 Instance Storage : EC2 Instance storage provides temporary block-level storage for EC2 instances.

Ecosystem

AWS cloud storage services can be combined to work with your instances to achieve high availability, performance, and scalability. Following is a figure which shows the relationship between the various AWS cloud storage services with EC2. Amazon EFS can be used as a shared file system to manage two instances. The EFS file system can be used as a common repository for applications running on multiple instances.
Amazon EBS can be used as primary storage for the instance, to store frequently accessed and updated data. In addition, it can be used as a server to run applications like the database is frequently updated. Finally, Amazon S3 the object storage platform can be used to store and retrieve any amount of data freely over the internet like backups of media data on the internet. Relatively it is best to store data which does is not updated and retrieved simultaneously in the Amazon S3 storage platform.

Benefits Of AWS Storage

•No upfront cost it is a pay-as-you-go model.
•Worldwide access: You can access all your data worldwide just using an internet connection
•Storage can be increased or decreased with changes in data size.
•Low-cost data storage with high durability and high availability
•Plenty of choices for backing/archiving data in case of disaster recovery.

Conclusion

AWS cloud storage services offer various solutions to meet the storage needs of organizations at any scale. These solutions are priced according to different tiers to offer the best possible solution in a cost-effective way. At a glance, it still seems to be an expensive solution for small businesses, however, if the nature of the business is working around large amounts of data, AWS cloud storage solutions can be factored into the budget. As a conclusion, before deciding any services, it is recommended to read all specifications of each product and the fine lines in the pricing terms and conditions.

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