EC2 & S3 | Notion

Amazon S3 offers a variety of storage classes, each optimized for different use cases. Here’s a summary of the primary storage classes:

Storage Class	Use Case	Durability	Availability	Retrieval Time	Cost (per GB)
S3 Standard	Frequently accessed data	99.999999999%	99.99%	Immediate	Higher storage cost, low retrieval cost
S3 Intelligent-Tiering	Variable access patterns (auto-tiering to save costs)	99.999999999%	99.9%	Immediate	Higher than Standard if frequently accessed, but saves on infrequent access
S3 Standard-IA	Infrequently accessed, but required quickly when needed	99.999999999%	99.9%	Immediate	Lower storage, higher retrieval cost
S3 One Zone-IA	Infrequently accessed, non-critical data (single AZ)	99.999999999%	99.5%	Immediate	Lower than Standard-IA, same retrieval cost
S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval	Archived data, immediate access required	99.999999999%	99.9%	Immediate	Lower storage, higher retrieval cost
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval	Archived data, some retrieval flexibility	99.999999999%	99.9%	Minutes to hours (selectable)	Very low storage, medium retrieval cost
S3 Glacier Deep Archive	Long-term, rarely accessed archival	99.999999999%	99.9%	Hours	Lowest storage cost, high retrieval cost

S3 Standard: Ideal for frequently accessed data, such as databases, critical app data, or frequently used assets like images and videos. Its high availability and immediate access time make it the default choice for critical data.
S3 Intelligent-Tiering: Best for unpredictable access patterns. It automatically shifts data between Frequent and Infrequent access tiers, saving on costs. Ideal for datasets with fluctuating access frequency.
S3 Standard-IA: Perfect for data that isn’t frequently accessed but must be quickly retrievable, such as disaster recovery backups or log archives. This class is suited for data accessed less than once a month.
S3 One Zone-IA: Designed for non-critical, infrequently accessed data that can tolerate data loss (e.g., re-creatable files, cached data). Stored in a single Availability Zone (AZ) for reduced costs.
S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval: For archived data that requires infrequent but instant access. Good for compliance data or medical records that need retrieval but aren't accessed often.
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval: Suitable for archives accessed occasionally but with some flexibility in retrieval time (e.g., compliance documents).
S3 Glacier Deep Archive: The lowest-cost storage, ideal for long-term archival of data accessed very rarely, like historical records or regulatory files that must be retained for many years.

To optimize S3 costs effectively:

Analyze Access Patterns: Use monitoring tools to evaluate how often your data is accessed, then select the appropriate storage class.
Automate Tiering with Intelligent-Tiering: For data with uncertain access patterns, Intelligent-Tiering shifts data automatically between access tiers, optimizing costs without manual intervention.
Set Lifecycle Policies: Automatically transition data to lower-cost classes (e.g., move from S3 Standard to Glacier after 90 days).
Compress and Deduplicate Data: Reduce storage costs by minimizing the amount of data stored.
Use Object Lock and Versioning Wisely: Lock data if required for compliance, but ensure it doesn’t retain unnecessary versions.

Let’s go through some practical scenarios to test your knowledge on storage class selection and cost management.