AWS cloud computing provides a reliable, scalable, and secure place for your data. 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. You may choose from object, file, and block storage services and cloud data migration options to start designing the foundation of your cloud IT environment. Amazon EBS provides highly available, consistent, low-latency, persistent local block storage for Amazon EC2. It helps you to tune applications with the right storage capacity, performance, and cost.
Amazon EFS provides a simple, scalable file system interface and file system access semantics to make data available to one or more EC2 instances as block storage. Amazon EFS grows and shrinks capacity automatically, and it provides high throughput with consistent low latencies. Amazon EFS is designed for high availability and durability, and it provides performance for a broad spectrum of workloads and applications. Amazon S3 is a form of object storage that provides a scalable, durable platform to make data accessible from any internet location, and it allows you to store and access any type of data over the internet. Amazon S3 is secure, 99.999999999 percent durable, and scales past tens of trillions of objects.
Amazon S3 Glacier provides extremely low-cost and highly durable object storage for long-term backup and archiving of any type of data. Amazon S3 Glacier is a solution for customers who want low-cost storage for infrequently accessed data. It can replace tape, and assist with compliance in highly regulated organizations. Amazon offers a full portfolio of cloud data migration services to help simplify and accelerate moving data of all types and sizes into and out of the AWS Cloud. These include AWS Storage Gateway, AWS Import/Export Disk, AWS Snowball, AWS Snowball Edge, AWS Snowmobile, Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose, AWS Direct Connect, and a VPN connection. Understanding when to use the right tool for your data storage and data migration options is a key component of the exam, including data dimension, block versus object versus file storage, data structure, and storage temperature. Be ready to compare and contrast the durability, availability, latency, means of access, and cost of different storage options for a given use case.
Know the different data dimensions. Consider the different data dimensions when choosing which storage option and storage class will be most appropriate for your data. This includes velocity, variety, volume, storage temperature (hot, warm, cold, frozen), data value, transient, reproducible, authoritative, and critical/regulated data.
Know the difference between block, object, and file storage. Block storage is commonly dedicated, low-latency storage for each host and is provisioned with each instance. Object storage is developed for the cloud, has vast scalability, is accessed over the Web, and is not directly attached to an instance. File storage enables accessing shared files as a file system.
Know the AWS shared responsibility model and how it applies to storage. AWS is responsible for securing the storage services. You are responsible for securing access to the artifacts that you create or objects that you store.
Know what Amazon EBS is and for what it is commonly used. Amazon EBS provides persistent block storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances. It is designed for application workloads that benefit from fine tuning for performance, cost, and capacity. Typical use cases include Big Data analytics engines, relational and NoSQL databases, stream and log processing applications, and data warehousing applications. Amazon EBS volumes also serve as root volumes for Amazon EC2 instances.
Know what Amazon EC2 instance store is and what it is commonly used for. An instance store provides temporary block-level storage for your instance. It is located on disks that are physically attached to the host computer. Instance store is ideal for temporary storage of information that changes frequently, such as buffers, caches, scratch data, and other temporary content, or for data that is replicated across a fleet of instances, such as a loadbalanced pool of web servers. In some cases, you can use instance-store backed volumes. Do not use instance store (also known as ephemeral storage) for either production data or data that must be kept durable.
Know what Amazon S3 is and what it is commonly used for. Amazon S3 is object storage built to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere. It is secure, durable, and highly scalable cloud storage using a simple web services interface. Amazon S3 is commonly used for backup and archiving, content storage and distribution, Big Data analytics, static website hosting, cloud-native application hosting, and disaster recovery, and as a data lake.
Know the basic concepts of Amazon S3. Amazon S3 stores data as objects within resources called buckets. You can store as many objects as desired within a bucket, and write, read, and delete objects in your bucket. Objects contain data and metadata and are identified by a user-defined key in a flat file structure. Interfaces to Amazon S3 include a native REST interface, SDKs for many languages, the AWS CLI, and the AWS Management Console.
Know how to create a bucket, how to upload, download, and delete objects, how to make objects public, and how to open an object URL.
Understand how security works in Amazon S3. By default, new buckets are private and nothing is publicly accessible. When you add an object to a bucket, it is private by default.
Know how much data you can store in Amazon S3. The total volume of data and number of objects that you can store in Amazon S3 are unlimited. Individual Amazon S3 objects can range in size from a minimum of 0 bytes to a maximum of 5 TB. The largest object that can be uploaded in a single PUT is 5 GB. For objects larger than 100 MB, consider using the Multipart Upload capability.
Know the Amazon S3 service limit for buckets per account. One hundred buckets are allowed per account.
Understand the durability and availability of Amazon S3. Amazon S3 standard storage is designed for 11 nines of durability and four nines of availability of objects over a given year. Other storage classes differ. Reduced Redundancy Storage (RRS) storage class is less durable than Standard, and it is intended for noncritical, reproducible data.
Know the data consistency model of Amazon S3. Amazon S3 is eventually consistent, but it offers read-after-write consistency (read after write consistency for PUT of new objects and eventual consistency for overwrite PUT and DELETE).
Know the Amazon S3 storage classes and use cases for each. Standard is used to store general-purpose data that needs high durability, high performance, and low latency access. Standard_IA is used for data that is less frequently accessed but that needs the same performance and availability when accessed. OneZone_IA is similar to Standard_IA, but it is stored only in a single Availability Zone, costing 20 percent less. However, data stored with OneZone_IA will be permanently lost in the event of an Availability Zone destruction. Reduced_Redundancy offers lower durability at lower cost for easily-reproducible data. Amazon S3 Glacier is used to store rarely accessed archival data at an extremely low cost, when three- to five-hour retrieval time is acceptable under the standard retrieval option. There are other retrieval options for higher and lower cost at shorter and longer retrieval times, including expedited retrieval (on-demand or provisioned, 1–5 minutes) and bulk retrieval (5–12 hours).
Every object within a bucket can be designated to a different storage class.
Know how to enable static web hosting on Amazon S3. The steps to enable static web hosting on Amazon S3 require you to do the following:
Know how to encrypt your data on Amazon S3. For server-side encryption, use SSE-SE (Amazon S3 Managed Keys), SSE-C (Customer-Provided Keys), and SSE-KMS (KMSManaged Keys). For client-side encryption, choose from a client-side master key or an AWS KMS managed customer master key.
Know how to protect your data on Amazon S3. Know the different options for protecting your data in flight and in transit. Encrypt data in flight using HTTPS and at rest using server-side or client-side encryption. Enable versioning to keep multiple versions of an object in a bucket. Enable MFA Delete to protect against accidental deletion. Use ACLs, Amazon S3 bucket policies, and IAM policies for access control. Use presigned URLs for time-limited download access. Use cross-region replication to replicate data to another region automatically.
Know how to use lifecycle configuration rules. Lifecycle rules can be used to manage your objects so that they are stored cost-effectively throughout their lifecycle. There are two types of actions. Transition actions define when an object transitions to another storage class. Expiration actions define when objects expire and will be deleted on your behalf.
Know what Amazon EFS is and what it is commonly used for. Amazon EFS provides simple, scalable, elastic file storage for use with AWS services and on-premises resources. Amazon EFS is easy to use and offers a simple interface that allows you to create and configure file systems quickly and easily. Amazon EFS is built to scale elastically on demand without disrupting applications, growing and shrinking automatically as you add and remove files, so your applications have the storage that they need, when they need it. Amazon EFS is designed for high availability and durability. Amazon EFS can be mounted to multiple Amazon EC2 instances at the same time.
Know the basics of Amazon S3 Glacier as a stand-alone service. Data is stored in encrypted archives that can be as large as 40 TB. Archives typically contain TAR and ZIP files. Vaults are containers for archives, and vaults can be locked for compliance.
Know which storage option to choose based on storage temperature. For hot to warm storage, use Amazon EC2 instance store, Amazon EBS, or Amazon S3. For cold storage, choose Amazon S3 Glacier.
Know which storage option to choose based on latency. Amazon EC2 instance store and Amazon EBS are designed for millisecond latency. Amazon S3 depends on size, anywhere from milliseconds to seconds to minutes. Amazon S3 Glacier is minutes to hours depending on retrieval option.
Know which storage option to choose based on data volume. Amazon EC2 instance store can be from 4 GB to 48 TB. Amazon EBS can be from 1 GiB to 16 TiB. Amazon S3 and Amazon S3 Glacier have no limit.
Know which storage option to choose based on item size. Amazon EC2 instance store and Amazon EBS depend on the size of the block storage and operating system limits. Amazon S3 has a 5 TB max size per object, but objects may be split. Amazon S3 Glacier has a 40 TB maximum.
Know when you should use Amazon EBS, Amazon EFS, Amazon S3, Amazon S3 Glacier, or AWS Storage Gateway for your data. For persistent local storage for Amazon EC2, use Amazon EBS. For a file system interface and file system access semantics to make data available to one or more Amazon EC2 instances, use Amazon EFS. For a scalable, durable platform to make data accessible from any internet location, use Amazon S3. For highly affordable, long-term cold storage, use Amazon S3 Glacier. For a hybrid storage cloud augmenting your on-premises environment with Amazon cloud storage, use AWS Storage Gateway.
Know when to choose Amazon EBS or Amazon EC2 instance store. Amazon EBS is most often the default option. However, Amazon EC2 instance store may be an option if your data does not meet any of the following criteria:
Know the different cloud data migration options. There are a number of options for migrating your data to the AWS Cloud, or having a hybrid data solution between AWS and your data center or on premises. These include (but are not limited to) AWS Storage Gateway, AWS Import/Export, AWS Snowball, AWS Snowball Edge, AWS Snowmobile, Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose, AWS Direct Connect, and AWS VPN connections. Know when to choose one over the other based on time, cost, or volume.
Know what AWS Storage Gateway is and how it is used for cloud data migration. AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid cloud storage service that enables your on-premises applications to use AWS cloud storage seamlessly. Use this for data migration by means of a gateway that connects to AWS storage services, such as Amazon S3, Amazon S3 Glacier, and Amazon EBS.
Know what AWS Import/Export Disk is and how it is used for cloud data migration. AWS Import/Export Disk accelerates moving large amounts of data into and out of the AWS Cloud using portable storage devices for transport. It transfers your data directly onto and off of storage devices using Amazon’s high-speed internal network and bypassing the internet. For significant data sets, it is often much faster than transferring the data via the internet. You provide the hardware.
Know what AWS Snowball is and how it is used for cloud data migration. Snowball is a petabyte-scale data transport solution that uses devices designed to be secure to transfer large amounts of data into and out of the AWS Cloud. Using Snowball addresses common challenges with large-scale data transfers including high network costs, long transfer times, and security concerns. You can transfer data at as little as one-fifth the cost of transferring data via high-speed internet. AWS provides the hardware.
Know what AWS Snowball Edge is and how it is used for cloud data migration. AWS Snowball Edge is a 100-TB data transfer device with on-board storage and compute capabilities. Use it to move large amounts of data into and out of AWS, as a temporary storage tier for large local datasets, or to support local workloads in remote or offline locations. AWS Snowball Edge is a fast and inexpensive way to transfer large amounts of data when migrating to AWS.
Know what AWS Snowmobile is and how it is used for cloud data migration. AWS Snowmobile is an exabyte-scale data transfer service used to move extremely large amounts of data to AWS. You can transfer up to 100 PB per Snowmobile, a 45-foot long ruggedized shipping container pulled by a semi-trailer truck. Snowmobile makes it easy to move massive volumes of data to the cloud, even a complete data center migration.
Know what Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose is and how it is used for cloud data migration. Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose is the easiest way to load streaming data reliably into data stores and analytics tools. It can capture, transform, and load streaming data into Amazon S3, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Elasticsearch Service, and Splunk. Kinesis Data Firehose can be used to transform and migrate data from on premises into the cloud.
Know what AWS Direct Connect is and how it is used for cloud data migration. Use AWS Direct Connect to establish private connectivity between AWS and your data center, office, or colocation environment, which in many cases can reduce your network costs, increase bandwidth throughput, and provide a more consistent network experience than internetbased connections.
Know what a VPN connection is and how it is used for cloud data migration. Connect your Amazon VPC to remote networks by using a VPN connection to increase privacy while migrating your data.
Know which tool to use for migrating storage to the AWS Cloud based on data size, timeline, and cost. There are two ways to migrate data: online and offline.
Online Use AWS Direct Connect to connect your data center privately and directly to an AWS Region. Use AWS Snowball to transport petabytes of data physically in batches to the cloud. Use Snowball Edge to build hybrid storage that preserves existing on-premises investment and adds AWS services. Use AWS Snowmobile to migrate exabytes of data in batches to the cloud. Use Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration to work with Amazon S3 over long geographic distances.
Offline Use AWS Storage Gateway to integrate existing on-premises resources with the cloud. Use AWS Snowball Edge to transport petabytes of data physically in an appliance with on-board storage and compute capabilities. Use Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose to collect and ingest multiple streaming data sources or perform ETL on data while migrating to the AWS Cloud.