Storage options on AWS

What are the main differences between Amazon EBS and Amazon EFS?

Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) is a block storage service designed for use with EC2 instances for both throughput and transaction-intensive workloads at any scale. Each EBS volume is automatically replicated within its Availability Zone to protect from component failure. In contrast, Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is a file storage service for use with Amazon EC2 instances and AWS cloud services. EFS provides a file system interface with file system capabilities and is designed to scale on demand without disrupting applications, growing and shrinking automatically as files are added and removed.

How does Amazon S3 differ from Amazon Glacier, and what use cases are they best suited for?

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is an object storage service with a simple web interface to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web. It is best suited for a wide range of use cases such as websites, mobile applications, backup and restore, archive, enterprise applications, IoT devices, and big data analytics. Amazon S3 Glacier is a secure, durable, and extremely low-cost storage service for data archiving and long-term backup. It is intended for data that is infrequently accessed and for which retrieval times of several hours are suitable.

Can you describe the difference between Amazon S3 Standard, S3 Standard-IA, and S3 One Zone-IA storage classes?

Amazon S3 Standard is designed for frequently accessed data and offers high durability, availability, and performance. S3 Standard-IA (IA, for infrequent access) is designed for data that may not be accessed as frequently but requires rapid access when needed, and offers the same durability and throughput as S3 Standard but at a lower cost. S3 One Zone-IA is similar to Standard-IA in terms of cost and performance, but data is stored in a single Availability Zone, which makes it less expensive but does not provide the same level of availability as Standard or Standard-IA.

What kinds of data transfer methods are available for getting large amounts of data into Amazon S3?

AWS provides several data transfer methods for moving large amounts of data to Amazon S3, including AWS Direct Connect for establishing a dedicated network connection, Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration for fast, secure, and easy transfers over long distances, Amazon S3 Multi-Part upload for higher performance and reliability for large objects, and AWS Snowball for large-scale data transport using physical devices.

What measures can be taken to secure data stored in Amazon S3?

To secure data in Amazon S3, users can employ several measures including the use of Bucket Policies and IAM Policies to control access, configure S3 Block Public Access to prevent public access to data, enable encryption in transit (using SSL/TLS) and at rest (using S3 server-side encryption or client-side encryption), enable versioning to preserve, retrieve, and restore every version of every object stored in an Amazon S3 bucket, and use MFA Delete to add an additional layer of security for object deletion.

What is the significance of S3 object immutability, and how is it achieved?

S3 object immutability is important for ensuring that data cannot be modified or deleted after it has been written. This is particularly significant for compliance with regulatory requirements. It can be achieved by using S3 Object Lock, which allows users to store objects using a “write once, read many” (WORM) model. It can be applied to individual objects or a bucket.

What is Amazon S3 Lifecycle policy, and how can it help in managing storage costs?

Amazon S3 Lifecycle policies are a set of rules that automate the transition of objects between different storage classes and manage the purging of objects that are no longer needed. By implementing lifecycle policies, users can reduce storage costs by automatically moving data to more cost-effective storage classes once it becomes less frequently accessed, or by archiving and deleting objects that have reached the end of their lifecycle.

How does Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering work, and what are its benefits?

Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering is a storage class designed to optimize costs by automatically moving data to the most cost-effective tier, without performance impact or operational overhead. It is suitable for data with unknown or changing access patterns. The benefits include cost savings, as it automatically moves data to the most cost-efficient access tier without retrieval charges, and no need to analyze and predict access patterns.

Describe an instance when you should consider using Provisioned IOPS with Amazon EBS, and explain why it is necessary.

Provisioned IOPS (PIOPS) with Amazon EBS should be considered when running I/O-intensive workloads that require consistent I/O performance, such as large relational or NoSQL databases, particularly when these applications require more than 16,000 IOPS, which is the baseline performance of EBS General Purpose SSD (gp2) volumes. It is necessary to provide predictable, high throughput for applications that are sensitive to storage performance and consistency.

What AWS service would you use for a hybrid cloud storage solution that allows on-premises applications to seamlessly use cloud storage?

AWS Storage Gateway is the service that provides a hybrid cloud storage solution. It enables on-premises applications to seamlessly use AWS cloud storage through its different modes such as File Gateway, Volume Gateway, and Tape Gateway. Each gateway type provides different features that cater to various use cases such as file shares, block storage, and virtual tape backup, respectively.

What is the difference between a cold HDD (sc1) and a throughput-optimized HDD (st1) EBS volume, and when might you use each?

Cold HDD (sc1) EBS volumes are designed for less frequently accessed workloads with large, cold data sets. They are most cost-effective for applications that require fewer IOPS. Throughput-optimized HDD (st1) EBS volumes, on the other hand, are designed for frequently accessed, throughput-intensive workloads and big data applications. They offer higher throughout compared to sc1 volumes and are suitable for workloads like data warehouses and log processing.