CLOUD LABS
Understanding AWS Storage Options—From Zero to Hero
In this Cloud Lab, you’ll explore the features and properties of common storage options Amazon Web Services provides. You’ll also learn to configure and use them with compute instances.
beginner
Certificate of Completion
Learning Objectives
AWS storage services allow storing and retrieving data over the network. AWS offers various scalable, manageable, and easily accessible storage options, which differ in scalability, payment plans, and the type of data they store.
In this Cloud Lab, you’ll work with three commonly used storage services: S3 buckets, Elastic Block Store (EBS), and Elastic File System (EFS). First, you’ll create an S3 bucket and upload files to it. You’ll also explore its static web hosting feature. Second, you’ll create an EBS volume and mount it to an EC2 instance. Finally, you’ll understand the shareability of EFS by mounting it to two instances. In addition to these, you’ll get a brief overview of security and access management for compute instances and resource-based policies.
By the end of this Cloud Lab, you’ll develop an understanding of the features provided by these storage options and compare them according to your requirements. Moreover, you’ll be well-equipped to configure and use these storage services in your projects.
The following is the high-level architecture diagram of the infrastructure that you’ll create in this Cloud Lab:
Relevant Courses
Use the following content to review prerequisites or explore specific concepts in detail.
Frequently Asked Questions
How much storage does AWS have?
AWS provides three main types of cloud storage:
- Object storage: Amazon S3 is ideal for unstructured data like backups, media files, and data lakes.
- File storage: Amazon EFS and FSx, designed for shared file systems and hierarchical data.
- Block storage: Amazon EBS and EC2 Instance Store, used for low-latency, high-performance workloads like databases and transactional systems.
Additionally, AWS offers specialized storage services, such as S3 Glacier for archiving, Storage Gateway for hybrid storage, and Snowball for data transfer.
What is the most widely used AWS service for storage and why?
Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is the most widely used AWS storage service because of its scalability, durability, and versatility. It is ideal for use cases like backups, data lakes, and website hosting. S3 offers 99.999999999% (11 nines) durability and integrates seamlessly with other AWS services, making it a top choice for businesses of all sizes.
Is AWS S3 storage free?
AWS S3 is not completely free, but the AWS Free Tier provides 5 GB of S3 Standard storage, 20,000 GET requests, 2,000 PUT requests, and 15 GB of data transfer out per month for the first 12 months. After the free tier, charges apply based on storage usage, data retrieval, and requests.
Which storage is fast in AWS?
AWS provides us with various storage solutions, each with strengths and weaknesses. However, determining the fastest solution depends on our use case:
- Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store): This service is best for high-performance storage attached to EC2 instances, ideal for databases and transactional applications.
- Amazon FSx (File systems): This service provides fast, fully managed file storage optimized for workloads like Windows applications (FSx for Windows) or high-performance computing (FSx for Lustre).
- Amazon File Cache: This service speeds up access to distributed file data, which is useful for hybrid cloud environments with frequently accessed datasets.
Felipe Matheus
Software Engineer
Adina Ong
Senior Engineering Manager
Clifford Fajardo
Senior Software Engineer
Thomas Chang
Software Engineer
