Cloud storage is a critical component of cloud computing, holding the information used by applications. Big data analytics, data warehouses, Internet of Things, databases, and backup and archive applications all rely on some form of data storage architecture. Cloud storage is typically more reliable, scalable, and secure than traditional on-premises storage systems.
AWS offers a complete range of cloud storage services to support both application and archival compliance requirements. Select from object, file, and block storage services as well as cloud data migration options to start designing the foundation of your cloud IT environment.
| If You Need: |
Consider Using: |
|---|---|
| Object storage, to make data available through an API that can be accessed anywhere | Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) |
| File storage, to make data available to one or more EC2 instances via a file system interface and file system access semantics | Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) |
| Block storage, to make data available as a virtual volume attached to a single Amazon EC2 compute instance | Amazon Elastic Block Storage (Amazon EBS) |
| Highly affordable long-term storage that can replace tape for archive and regulatory compliance |
Amazon Glacier |
| A software appliance that links your on-premises storage environment to Amazon cloud storage | AWS Storage Gateway |
| A portfolio of services to help simplify and accelerate moving data of all types and sizes into and out of the AWS cloud |
Cloud Data Migration Services |
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is an object storage service designed to store any type of data.
It is secure, durable, and highly scalable, and applications can access storage directly. Amazon S3 is used for content storage and distribution, large-scale web development, data lakes for analytics workloads, and cloud-native applications going directly across the web.
For more information, visit the Amazon S3 page.
Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) provides simple, scalable file storage for use with Amazon EC2 instances in the AWS Cloud.
It delivers a file system interface with standard file system access semantics for Amazon EC2 instances. Amazon EFS grows and shrinks capacity automatically, and provides high throughput with consistently low latencies. Amazon EFS is ideal for Big Data analytics, media processing workflows, content management, web serving, and home directories.
For more information visit the Amazon EFS page.
Amazon Elastic Block Storage (Amazon EBS) provides block-level storage that serves as a virtual hard drive for your Amazon EC2 instance.
Amazon EBS is designed for workloads that require persistent storage accessible by single EC2 instances. Typical use cases include boot volumes, transactional and NoSQL databases (like Microsoft Exchange, Cassandra and MongoDB), Big Data analytics platforms (like Hadoop, Amazon EMR, and HortonWorks), stream and log processing applications (like Kafka and Splunk), and data warehousing applications (like Vertica and Cassandra).
For more information visit the Amazon EBS page.
Amazon Glacier is an extremely low-cost and highly durable storage service for data archive and long-term backup of any type of data.
Amazon Glacier is a solution for customers who want low-cost storage for infrequently accessed data. It can replace tape while assisting with compliance in highly regulated organizations like healthcare, life science, and financial services.
For more information visit the Amazon Glacier page.
The AWS Storage Gateway is a software appliance that seamlessly links your on-premises environment to Amazon cloud storage.
It provides low-latency access to frequently accessed data and maintains durable remote volumes, to help you match the value of your storage with the value of your data. Use it with existing backup and recovery applications to replace tape automation without disrupting existing processes, or supplement “bursty” on-premises workloads with storage capacity on demand.
For more information visit the AWS Storage Gateway page.
Amazon offers a portfolio of data migration services to get data into and out of the AWS cloud.
These services help you do things like securely and quickly move multi-petabyte archives, capture continuous streaming data from multiple sources, and accelerate network transfers on existing infrastructure.
For more information visit the Cloud Data Migration page.
