Concepts
Amazon S3 offers a range of storage classes designed for different use cases:
- S3 Standard: Ideal for frequently accessed data and offers high durability, availability, and performance.
- S3 Intelligent-Tiering: Automatically moves data to the most cost-effective access tier, based on usage patterns.
- S3 Standard-IA: Designed for data that is less frequently accessed but requires rapid access when needed.
- S3 One Zone-IA: Similar to Standard-IA but stores data in only one AZ (Availability Zone) and costs less.
- S3 Glacier: Well-suited for long-term data archiving with retrieval times ranging from minutes to hours.
- S3 Glacier Deep Archive: Amazon S3’s lowest-cost storage class for archiving data that is accessed once or twice a year.
The pricing for S3 storage varies by region and is generally structured as follows:
- Storage costs: Charged per gigabyte-month.
- Request costs: Charged per thousand requests. GET and PUT requests have different costs.
- Data transfer costs: Outbound data transfers to the internet have a cost, whereas inbound transfers and transfers between S3 and other AWS services within the same region typically do not.
- Additional fees: For specific features like S3 Inventory, Replication, or early deletion fees for S3 Glacier and Glacier Deep Archive.
Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS)
Amazon EBS provides block storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances. EBS volumes are available in several types designed for different workloads:
- General Purpose SSD (gp2 and gp3): Balance price and performance for a wide variety of workloads.
- Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 and io2): Highest-performance SSD volume for mission-critical low-latency or high-throughput workloads.
- Throughput Optimized HDD (st1): Low-cost HDD volume designed for frequently accessed, throughput-intensive workloads.
- Cold HDD (sc1): Lowest-cost HDD volume designed for less frequently accessed data.
EBS pricing components include:
- Volume storage: Charged per gigabyte-month of provisioned storage.
- IOPS: With provisioned IOPS volumes, you pay for the IOPS provisioned, in addition to storage costs.
- Snapshot storage: Charged for the space your snapshots take up. Deleting snapshots can help reduce costs.
- Data transfer costs: Similar to S3, inbound transfers are free, and outbound transfers incur charges beyond the first GB per month.
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)
Amazon EFS provides a simple, scalable file storage for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources.
- Standard and One Zone storage classes: Pay for the amount of storage used per month.
- Infrequent Access (IA): Lower cost storage class for files not accessed every day. Charged based on storage and access.
- Data transfer costs: Charged for reading data from the EFS file system from outside the AWS region it is stored in.
Example Pricing Comparison
Let’s compare the monthly cost for storing 50 GB of data in various storage classes, assuming the data is stored in the US East (N. Virginia) region and is not accessed throughout the month:
| Storage Service | Storage Class | Storage Cost (50 GB) |
|---|---|---|
| Amazon S3 | Standard | $1.15 |
| Amazon S3 | Standard-IA | $0.64 |
| Amazon S3 | S3 Glacier | $0.20 |
| Amazon S3 | S3 Glacier Deep Archive | $0.10 |
| Amazon EBS | General Purpose SSD (gp3) | $0.35 |
| Amazon EBS | Cold HDD (sc1) | $0.10 |
| Amazon EFS | Standard | $1.50 |
| Amazon EFS | Standard-IA | $0.08 (plus access costs) |
Note: The prices above are illustrative and subject to change. Consult the AWS Pricing page for updated and detailed costs.
Conclusion
Understanding the nuances of AWS storage pricing requires careful consideration of usage patterns, data retrieval needs, and redundancy requirements. By matching the right storage option and tier to your specific needs, you can optimize costs without sacrificing performance and durability. Additionally, using services such as AWS Cost Explorer or the AWS Pricing Calculator can help estimate and plan your expenses more accurately.
Answer the Questions in Comment Section
True/False: Amazon S3 bucket names must be globally unique across all AWS accounts.
- True
- False
True
Amazon S3 bucket names are designed to be globally unique, so once a specific name has been taken, it cannot be used by another AWS account.
Single Select: What Amazon S3 storage class is designed for data that is accessed less frequently but requires rapid access when needed?
- Amazon S3 Standard
- Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
- Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA)
- Amazon S3 Glacier
Amazon S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA)
Amazon S3 Standard-IA is intended for data that is less frequently accessed but requires the same low latency and high throughput of S3 Standard when accessed.
True/False: Amazon S3 Glacier has an immediate data retrieval option with high costs compared to standard retrieval.
- True
- False
True
Amazon S3 Glacier supports several data retrieval options including expedited retrievals which are more expensive but allow for quick access to your data.
Multiple Select: Which of the following are factors that can affect the pricing of Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes? (Select TWO)
- Type of EBS volume
- Number of snapshots taken
- The color of the EBS volume icon
- Availability Zone of the volume
- Data transfer rates
Type of EBS volume, Availability Zone of the volume
The price of Amazon EBS volumes depends on the type (e.g., gp2, io1, etc.) and the Availability Zone in which they are provisioned. Snapshots are charged separately, and icons have no bearing on cost.
True/False: Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) only offers one storage class, which is optimised for frequently accessed files.
- True
- False
False
Amazon EFS offers a standard storage class for actively used files and an infrequent access storage class (EFS IA) for files that are seldom accessed, both with different pricing options.
Single Select: What AWS service provides a block storage option that is meant to be used with Amazon EC2 instances?
- Amazon S3
- Amazon RDS
- Amazon EBS
- Amazon Redshift
Amazon EBS
Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) provides persistent block storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances.
True/False: Amazon RDS pricing is solely based on the underlying instance size and does not take into account the database engine type.
- True
- False
False
Amazon RDS pricing is based on the instance size and the database engine type being used, as different engines may have different licensing costs.
Multiple Select: Which costs are typically involved when using Amazon S3? (Select TWO)
- Storage cost per gigabyte
- Cost for S3 bucket creation
- Data transfer out of S3 to the internet
- Unlimited free data transfer between S3 and EC2 in the same region
- Flat fee for unlimited storage
Storage cost per gigabyte, Data transfer out of S3 to the internet
Amazon S3 charges for the amount of storage used per gigabyte and for data transferred out to the internet. There is no initial cost for creating S3 buckets, and while data transfer between S3 and EC2 is not unlimited free, it does offer reduced pricing within the same region. There’s also no flat fee option for unlimited storage.
True/False: AWS offers a free tier for Amazon S3 that includes a limited amount of storage and data transfer each month for one year after account sign-up.
- True
- False
True
AWS’s free tier for Amazon S3 includes 5 GB of standard storage, 20,000 Get Requests, and 2,000 Put Requests, along with 15 GB of data transfer out each month for the first year.
Single Select: Which AWS service offers a fully managed file system for compute instances that supports NFS and SMB protocols?
- Amazon EBS
- Amazon S3
- Amazon EFS
- Amazon Glacier
Amazon EFS
Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) provides a simple, scalable, fully managed elastic NFS file system for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources.
True/False: The AWS Storage Gateway service’s tape gateway setup simulates physical tape infrastructure, allowing for a virtual tape library that can be connected to your backup application.
- True
- False
True
The tape gateway configuration of AWS Storage Gateway offers a virtual tape library (VTL) interface that emulates a physical tape library, allowing integration with existing backup applications.
Single Select: Which of the following is NOT a valid Amazon S3 storage class?
- Amazon S3 Standard
- Amazon S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access
- Amazon S3 Multi-Region Access Points
- Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering
Amazon S3 Multi-Region Access Points
Amazon S3 Multi-Region Access Points are not a storage class but a feature to simplify managing data access on a multi-regional scale. They allow easy setup and management of multi-region access to S3 data.
Great article! Really helped me understand the complexities of AWS storage pricing.
For S3 storage, does anyone know the main differences in pricing between Standard and Intelligent-Tiering?
Thanks for the breakdown. Can someone explain how Glacier storage tiers differ in cost and usage?
What should be considered when choosing between EBS and EFS for EC2 instances?
Is there an easy way to estimate costs between different AWS storage options?
Fantastic guide! The comparisons are really useful.
Are there any hidden costs in AWS storage pricing that newcomers should be aware of?
I appreciate the detailed explanations. This will definitely help for the Cloud Practitioner exam!