Amazon Simple Storage Service

Amazon Simple Storage Service
Name	Amazon Simple Storage Service
Developer	Amazon Web Services
Released	2006
Operating system	Cross-platform
Website	aws.amazon.com/s3

Amazon Simple Storage Service

Amazon Simple Storage Service is a cloud object storage service from Amazon Web Services introduced in 2006 that provides scalable, durable, and secure storage for data used by organizations such as Netflix, Airbnb, NASA, Toyota, and Zillow. It integrates with platforms and services like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, Salesforce, Dropbox, and Slack and is referenced in standards and ecosystems involving OpenStack, Kubernetes, Docker, VMware vSphere, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux. Major enterprises including Capital One, Comcast, Expedia Group, Pfizer, and Siemens rely on it alongside tools from HashiCorp, Splunk, Datadog, New Relic, and Elastic NV.

Overview

Amazon Simple Storage Service is designed to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere for customers like Unilever, Procter & Gamble, Novartis, BP, and Shell. It competes with offerings from Microsoft Corporation, Google LLC, IBM, Oracle Corporation, and Alibaba Group and is cited in analyses by firms such as Gartner, Forrester Research, IDC, McKinsey & Company, and Bain & Company. The service supports use by government and research institutions including European Space Agency, CERN, NIH, US Department of Defense, and UK National Health Service.

Features and Architecture

The architecture uses object-based storage with features leveraged by developers at Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, and Snap Inc.. Core capabilities include APIs and SDKs used in languages supported by Oracle Corporation Java, Microsoft Corporation .NET, Python Software Foundation Python, Node.js Foundation Node.js, and Ruby Ruby, as well as command-line tools used by Red Hat, Canonical Ltd., SUSE, and Fedora Project. Integration points include Amazon EC2, Amazon Lambda, Amazon RDS, Amazon CloudFront, and Amazon Glacier and orchestration with Ansible, Chef, Puppet, Terraform, and Jenkins.

Storage Classes and Data Management

Storage tiers address needs for customers like Bloomberg L.P., Thomson Reuters, Dow Jones, Nasdaq, Inc., and New York Stock Exchange for archival and active datasets. Lifecycle policies, versioning, replication, and intelligent tiering work with services such as AWS Backup, AWS DataSync, AWS Snowball, AWS Snowmobile, and third-party tools from Commvault, Veritas Technologies, Veeam, NetApp, and Dell EMC.

Security and Access Control

Security controls align with compliance frameworks used by ISO, NIST, SOC 2, PCI DSS, and HIPAA and are relied upon by institutions such as Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank, and HSBC. Access control integrates AWS Identity and Access Management, role-based configurations familiar to Microsoft Corporation Azure Active Directory users and federation with Okta, Ping Identity, OneLogin, and Auth0. Encryption features are used by organizations including Roche, GlaxoSmithKline, AstraZeneca, Johnson & Johnson, and Bayer AG.

Performance, Availability, and Durability

Service-level characteristics inform architecture decisions at companies like Spotify, Twitch, Bloomberg, Reuters, and The New York Times. Durability and availability metrics influence design patterns adopted in distributed systems research at MIT, Stanford University, Carnegie Mellon University, University of California, Berkeley, and ETH Zurich. Global edge delivery with Amazon CloudFront supports multimedia platforms such as Hulu, Disney+, HBO Max, YouTube, and Vimeo.

Pricing and Billing

Pricing models affect financial planning in enterprises such as Walmart, Target Corporation, Costco Wholesale, Home Depot, and Best Buy. Billing and cost-optimization tools are provided by AWS Cost Explorer, Cloudability, CloudHealth Technologies, Spot by NetApp, and consulting firms like Deloitte, Accenture, PwC, KPMG, and Ernst & Young.

Use Cases and Integrations

Common use cases include content delivery, backup and restore, archive, big data analytics, and disaster recovery employed by Uber Technologies, Lyft, DoorDash, Grubhub, and Instacart. Integrations extend to analytics and AI platforms such as Snowflake, Databricks, Hortonworks, Cloudera, and Apache Hadoop as well as machine learning frameworks used by OpenAI, DeepMind, Facebook AI Research, Microsoft Research, and Google Research.

Category:Cloud storage services