AWS Technical Essentials

Lesson 3—Storage and Content Delivery

WHAT YOU’LL LEARN

• Six Amazon Data Storage Offers

• Elastic Block Storage of AWS
Amazon Data Storage Offers

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)

Amazon Glacier

Amazon Storage Gateway

Amazon Import/Export
 Amazon S3
Amazon S3 provides safe and secure object storage to developers.

Internet

User-Friendly Interface Storing and Accessing Data AWS Account

A file in the Amazon S3 parlance is referred to as an object.

 Object Representation

S3 Object

Actual data portion not Metadata stores

visible to Amazon information
 Amazon S3 Bucket and Objects

• Select the region

• Create a bucket

• Store the data

 Amazon S3 Bucket and Objects

Enables you to store one or more objects

Account holders can create a maximum of 100 buckets

Logical container for multiple objects

Amazon S3 Bucket

Identified by a key

Size can be up to 5TB

Object

● Access permissions for objects and buckets can be set through suggested terms and policies.
● Access logs can be maintained to keep a track of the buckets used.
Demo 01—Creating an Amazon S3 Bucket
(Refer to the E-Learning course: Screen Number – 3.3)
Demonstrate how to create an Amazon S3 Bucket.
Demo 02—Managing Logging in an Amazon S3 Bucket
(Refer to the E-Learning course: Screen Number – 3.4)
Demonstrate how to manage logging in an Amazon S3 Bucket.
Demo 03—Deleting or Emptying an Amazon S3 Bucket
(Refer to the E-Learning course: Screen Number – 3.5)
Demonstrate how to delete or empty an Amazon S3 Bucket.
 Amazon S3 Process, Bucket usage and its objectives
Let’s see the process of accessing AWS region, and use a bucket and its objects.

Duplicates on multiple devices, and

Desired region selected
facilities within the region

99.99 percent durability and availability of objects

Low-priced Reduced Redundancy Storage helps duplicate objects across a small number of locations in a
region.
 Amazon S3 Storage Class

S3 Standard Amazon Glacier

For General purpose For long term archiving
for active data

S3 Standard Rare Access

For general purpose and enduring,
but not much active data

Amazon S3 offers configurable policies for handling data throughout its development. Once the policy is set,
the data would be migrated to the most appropriate storage class and without any changes to the application.
 Simple Storage Service Pricing

S3 Price REST SOAP

GET APIs

PUT

POST
Storage Bandwidth Retrieve Upload

● Server-Side Encryption or AES-256 Standard can be used to encrypt stored objects.

● Security breaches while transacting data can be avoided using SSL connections.
Knowledge Check
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK The object representation of a file consists of _____.
1

a. long-term archiving

b. the actual data portion

c. disaster recovery

d. the configurable lifecycle

KNOWLEDGE
The object representation of a file consists of _____.
CHECK
1

a. long-term archiving

b. the actual data portion

c. disaster recovery

d. the configurable lifecycle

The correct answer is .b.

Explanation: The object representation of a file consists of the actual data portion not visible to Amazon.
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK Amazon S3 Buckets allow you to enable access the logs.
2

a. True

b. False
 KNOWLEDGE
CHECK Amazon S3 Buckets allow you to enable access the logs.
2

a. True

b. False

The correct answer is a.

Explanation: Once you have created a bucket, you can enable or disable access logs from the Logging properties.
Amazon Data Storage Offers

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)

Amazon Glacier

Amazon Storage Gateway

Amazon Import/Export
 Amazon CloudFront
Amazon CloudFront is an economical, but a dynamic content delivery network, or CDN.

Amazon CloudFront User Experience

 Amazon CloudFront–Frequently Accessed Content

IRELAND
3 2
FRANKFURT BEIJING
AWS GOVCLOUD
OREGON 32 2 2
3 5 3 TOKYO
N. CALIFORNIA SEOUL
N. VIRGINIA

2
SINGAPORE

3
# Regions SAO PAULO 2 SYDNEY

Edge Location

Edge locations refer to the boundaries between locations of major cloud servers.
 CloudFront Working–Not Cached Content

Visitor Amazon CloudFront Server

 Amazon Cloudfront Usage

Amazon CloudFront supports users requesting data using both web browsers and mobile devices.
It is an ideal choice to distribute the frequently accessed static and dynamic content.

Pictures
Videos
Pictures
Videos

Dynamic web
applications Software products
Dynamic web
applications Software products

Mobile Device
 Amazon CloudFront–Key Advantages

Ability to scale according to

Flexible cost model
requirement

No need to manage high-priced web No minimum monthly commitment or a

servers for your web traffic needs. fixed-term contract.

Start small, and grow as the traffic to Pay only for the content you deliver
your website increases. using Amazon CloudFront.

Automatically manages traffic load

without any intervention.
Knowledge Check
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK
Edge locations refer to the boundaries between locations of major _____.
1

a. cloud servers

b. client physical servers

c. client locations

d. visitors
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK
Edge locations refer to the boundaries between locations of major _____.
1

a. cloud servers

b. client physical servers

c. client locations

d. visitors

The correct answer is a.

.
Explanation: Edge locations refer to the boundaries between locations of major cloud servers.
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK
From the following, identify the types of content that can be distributed using Amazon CloudFront.
2

a. Videos

b. Dynamic Web Applications

c. Pictures

d. All of the above

KNOWLEDGE
CHECK
From the following, identify the types of content that can be distributed using Amazon CloudFront.
2

a. Videos

b. Dynamic Web Applications

c. Pictures

d. All of the above

The correct answer is d.

.
Explanation: Amazon CloudFront is an ideal choice to distribute frequently accessed static and dynamic content
such as videos, pictures, software products, and dynamic web applications over HTTP.
Amazon Data Storage Offers

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)

Amazon Glacier

Amazon Storage Gateway

Amazon Import/Export
 Amazon Elastic File System

Amazon Elastic File System

The system is said to be elastic, as it automatically maintains storage whenever you create or delete a file.
 Amazon EFS Usage
The Amazon EFS service enables storing Amazon EC2 instances.

Supports

File storage Network file Latest tools and Amazon EFS

service system applications

NFSv4 protocol Seamless working

Connects
Common data source
Multiple Amazon
Amazon EFS EC2 instances

EFS connection
 Amazon EFS Benefits
Amazon EFS helps you to be charged only for your data usage or storage.

Seek solutions to manage Maintain multiple development and

content repositories test environments

Scale performance of Manage users accessing data and

Big Data applications shared datasets from a remote location
Amazon Data Storage Offers

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)

Amazon Glacier

Amazon Storage Gateway

Amazon Import/Export
 Amazon Glacier
An economical storage solution to store data that would remain forever, but, rarely accessed.

Ideal choice for data Provides data security Offers flexibility in

backup and archiving of the highest level storing and retrieving data

AWS bills you only for the used data or storage, and current least price for storing data in Amazon Glacier
is $0.007 per gigabyte per month.
 Amazon Glacier Features
Maintaining historical data can be difficult as it adds to the administrative liability of managing and storing
huge amounts of data.

Detecting and repairing

Capacity planning Hardware provisioning hardware failure

Data replication Hardware migrations

 Amazon Glacier–Data Storage

Stores

Amazon Glacier Archives Single file Combination of several files

Access

Vaults AWS IAM service

Amazon Glacier stores data in transit via SSL, and uses 256-bit advanced encryption system.
 Types of Data
Amazon Glacier support the following use cases:

Archiving off-site enterprise information

Backing up media assets

Storing Research and scientific data

Preserving Digital data

Replacing magnetic tapes

 Durability and Availability
The Amazon Glacier archives offer an average annual resilience of 99.999999999 percent.
The archiving service maintains this resilience by continuously utilizing several facilities and devices
within each facility to store the data.
This task continues till the service returns SUCCESS on uploading archives

Facility 1 Facility 2 Facility 3

Knowledge Check
KNOWLEDGE
Amazon Elastic File System is said to be elastic as it automatically maintains storage whenever you
CHECK
1
_____ a file.

a. create or delete

b. organize or restore

c. manage or maintain

d. enable or disable
KNOWLEDGE Amazon Elastic File System is said to be elastic as it automatically maintains storage whenever you
CHECK _____ a file.
1

a. create or delete

b. organize or restore

c. manage or maintain

d. enable or disable

The correct answer is a.

.
Explanation: Amazon Elastic File System is said to be elastic as it automatically maintains storage whenever you
create or delete a file. It enables you to create and set up file storage to quickly and easily access files.
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK Amazon Glacier is ideal for _____.
2

a. backup and archiving

b. accessing data and shared data

c. regular and frequently used data

d. transfer and requests

KNOWLEDGE
CHECK
Amazon Glacier is ideal for _____.

a. backup and archiving

b. accessing data and shared data

c. regular and frequently used data

d. transfer and requests

The correct answer is a.

.
Explanation: Amazon Glacier is an ideal choice for data backup and archiving; provides data security of the highest
level, and offers flexibility in both storing and retrieving data.
Amazon Data Storage Offers

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)

Amazon Glacier

Amazon Storage Gateway

Amazon Import/Export
 AWS Storage Gateway

AWS Storage Gateway

Cloud Storage Datacenters

 AWS Storage Gateway
AWS Storage Gateway is a scalable, and an economical amalgamation of your office IT and AWS storage
infrastructure.
This amalgamation offers:

Amazon S3 Amazon Glacier

Storage protocols work in Minimizes latency, or the gap Stores data in an encrypted
harmony with your current between request and form in Amazon S3, or
applications response time Amazon Glacier
 AWS Storage Gateway
The AWS Storage Gateway service is an ideal choice to:

Back up applications in Plan for disaster recovery by creating a mirror of Share files within the
an encrypted form entire production environment corporate environment
 AWS Storage Gateway Configurations

The AWS Storage Gateway service is an ideal choice to do the following:

Back up applications in Plan for disaster recovery by creating a mirror Share files within the
an encrypted form of your entire production environment corporate environment

There are three configurations that the AWS Storage Gateway supports:
● Gateway-Cached Volumes
● Gateway-Stored Volumes
● Gateway-Virtual Tape Library
Amazon Data Storage Offers

Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3)

Amazon CloudFront

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS)

Amazon Glacier

Amazon Storage Gateway

Amazon Import/Export
 AWS Import/Export
The AWS Import/Export service allows easy transfer of considerable volumes of data from and to AWS without
using the Internet, but physical storage devices.

AWS Import/Export
utilizes loads

High-speed internal network Onto the devices

Features

AWS Import/Export Snowball AWS Import/Export Disk

 Snowball
Snowball is a cost-effective data transfer solution. A single Snowball is capable of transferring up to 50
terabytes of data.

Physical data centers Secured Storage Amazon S3

Snowball

Addresses:

Challenges of high network costs

Unending transfer queues

Data security
 Snowball–Steps
Following are the steps to use Snowball:

Create a job in the AWS Connect it to the local The client runs an Once the files are
Management console network and install the internal program to transferred, ship the
Snowball Client to encrypt the data using Snowball appliance to
establish the connection 256-bit encryption, and AWS
then transfers the
selected files to the
appliance
 Snowball–Uses
Snowball becomes your ideal choice when:

Expensive network infrastructure upgrades are beyond your

budget or capacity

Huge backlog of data

High-speed Internet connection not available

According to AWS, if the estimated time to transfer a certain amount of data using a high-speed
connection is approximately one week, then you should opt for Snowball.
 AWS Import/Export Disk

Data centers

Amazon S3 Amazon EBS Amazon Glacier

Disk
High-speed network

Snowball

Amazon S3
Knowledge Check
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK
The configuration that the Storage Gateway does not support is ______.
1

a. Gateway-Cached Volumes

b. Gateway-Stored Volumes

c. the Gateway-Application Volume

d. the Gateway-Virtual Tape Library

KNOWLEDGE
CHECK
The configuration that the Storage Gateway does not support is ______.
1

a. Gateway-Cached Volumes

b. Gateway-Stored Volumes

c. the Gateway-Application Volume

d. the Gateway-Virtual Tape Library

The correct answer is c.

.
Explanation: The three configurations that the AWS Storage Gateway supports are Gateway-Cached Volumes,
Gateway-Stored Volumes, and the Gateway-Virtual Tape Library.
KNOWLEDGE Disk service enables transfer of data from and to your on-premises data centers using
CHECK
2 _____.

a. Amazon S3

b. Amazon Glacier

c. Amazon CloudFront

d. Amazon’s internal high-speed network

KNOWLEDGE Disk service enables transfer of data from and to your on-premises data centers
CHECK using _____.

a. Amazon S3

b. Amazon Glacier

c. Amazon CloudFront

d. Amazon’s internal high-speed network

The correct answer is d.

.
Explanation: Disk service enables transfer of data from and to your on-premises data centers using
Amazon’s internal high-speed network. It is an ideal choice to transfer small amounts of data.
Elastic Block Storage of AWS
 Elastic Block Storage
Amazon EC2 Instance Storage is an ephemeral storage offering instance data storing.

Storage for temporary use Content is lost when the System is rebooted

EBS is used mainly in stateless web hosts, transcoding, caching, and High Performance Computing, or HPC.
 Two types of EBS constructions

Magnetic storage SSD construction

• A slower, older Elastic Block

Storage General Purpose Provisioned
IOPS IOPS
• Provides up to 150 Input -
Output Operations Per
Second (IOPS)
 Two types of SSD constructions

General • Possesses the capability to provide three IOPS per GB of provisioned storage.
Purpose IOPS • Is used for small websites. It is also used for small and medium databases.

Provisioned • Enables the user to specify the IOPS as per their requirement.
IOPS • Is used for applications and databases where there is a significant amount of traffic.
 Provisioned IOPS and EBS Volume

EC2
Instances

Channel of
communication

Provisioned IOPS EBS Optimized EC2 instances EBS

Volumes

Same Availability Zone

EBS provides the option to increase the volume or storage size at a later stage, however, decreasing the
size is ruled out.
EBS Volume Size and Snapshot

To increase
the Size of Unmounting Server
EBS Volume

New EBS Snapshot Amazon S3

Volume of the drive
Knowledge Check
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK EBS is used mainly in _____.
1

a. transcoding

b. encoding

c. networking

d. applications
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK EBS is used mainly in _______.

a. transcoding

b. encoding

c. networking
d. applications

The correct answer is a..

Explanation: Ephemeral refers to the fact that the storage is for temporary usage and will lose its content
when the system is rebooted. EBS is used mainly in stateless web hosts, transcoding, caching, and High
Performance Computing (HPC).
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK The Deleted stage enables you to use the _____.
2

a. DeleteDrive

b. Deletelifecycle

c. DeleteSnapshot

d. DeleteVolume
KNOWLEDGE
CHECK The Deleted stage enables you to use the _____.

a.
DeleteDrive

b.
Deletelifecycle

c.
DeleteSnapshot
d. DeleteVolume

The correct answer is d..

Explanation: The Deleted stage enables you to use the DeleteVolume function and delete the detached
volume. This is the last stage of EBS volume lifecycle and marks the end.
Quiz
QUIZ
Magnetic storage is persistent and is a slower, older _____.

a. Elastic File System

b. Simple Storage

c. Elastic Block Storage

d. Amazon Glazier
 QUIZ
Magnetic storage is persistent and is a slower, older_____.

a. Elastic File System

b. Simple Storage

c. Elastic Block Storage

d. Amazon Glazier

The correct answer is c.

Explanation: Magnetic storage is persistent and is a slower, older Elastic Block Storage. It provides up
to 150 Input Output Operations Per Second (IOPS).
QUIZ Why is the retrieval time for stored data in Glacier much longer when compared to other
2 options is AWS?

a. Amazon Glacier is low in memory.

b. Amazon Glacier is used to store archived data.

c. Amazon Glacier is used to store large amounts of data.

d. Amazon Glacier is used to store selective data.

 QUIZ Why is the retrieval time for stored data in Glacier much longer when compared to other
2 options is AWS?

a. Amazon Glacier is low in memory.

b. Amazon Glacier is used to store archived data.

c. Amazon Glacier is used to store large amounts of data.

d. Amazon Glacier is used to store selective data.

The correct answer is b.

Explanation: Amazon Glacier is used to store data for long periods of time. This data is stored in
archives and is retrieved by performing particular job tasks, making the retrieval time in Glacier much
longer.
QUIZ
The data in Virtual Tape Library is backed by _____.
3

a. Amazon EC2 Instances

b. Amazon S3

c. Amazon Glacier

d. a Network of Virtual Tapes

 QUIZ
The data in Virtual Tape Library is backed by _____.
3

a. Amazon EC2 Instances

b. Amazon S3

c. Amazon Glacier

d. a Network of Virtual Tapes

The correct answer is b.

Explanation: The Gateway-VTL service uses Amazon S3 to backup the VTL data, and Amazon Glacier to
backup data in VTS.
QUIZ
What device is used by AWS for import or export?
4

a. Firewall

b. Datacenter

c. Snowball

d. Internet connection
 QUIZ
What device is used by AWS for import or export?
4

a. Firewall

b. Datacenter

c. Snowball

d. Internet connection

The correct answer is c.

Explanation: The device used by AWS in its current state is Snowball, a ruggedized device that can be
shipped to Amazon with one’s data. This helps to import and export data in and out of the Amazon S3
buckets, Amazon Glacier, or Amazon EBS.
QUIZ
Which of the following is an SSD option? Select all that apply.
5

a. General Purpose IOPS

b. EBS volume

c. Simple Storage Service

d. Provisioned IOPS
 QUIZ
Which of the following is an SSD option? Select all that apply.
5

a. General Purpose IOPS

b. EBS volume

c. Simple Storage Service

d. Provisioned IOPS

The correct answer is a and d.

Explanation: General Purpose IOPS provides less storage and is used for small websites and databases.
Provisioned IOPS is used for applications and databases where there is a significant amount of traffic.
Key Takeaways
 Key Takeaways

Traditional Storage data centers have Direct Attached Storage, Network Attached Storage, and
Storage Area Networks which differ in their performance, durability, and cost.

Direct Attached Storage Networked Attached

Storage (NAS) Storage Area Network (SAN)
(DAS)

Controller
 Key Takeaways

Amazon S3 provides a secure object storage to developers, Amazon CloudFront improves user
experience by accessing the content of the website, and Amazon EFS enables the creation of file
storage to easily access files.

Safe and secure object storage Amazon CloudFront Amazon Elastic File System

Amazon S3
 Key Takeaways

Amazon Glacier is a storage solution to store long-lived and irregularly accessed data, and AWS
Storage Gateway is a service providing secure connection between organization’s data centers
and the cloud storage.

AWS Storage Gateway

Ideal choice for data Cloud Storage Datacenters

backup and archiving

Amazon Glacier
 Key Takeaways

AWS Import/Export service enables easy transfer of large amounts of data into and out of AWS
using physical storage devices, avoiding the Internet.

AWS Import/Export Snowball AWS Import/Export Disk

 Key Takeaways

Ephemeral refers to the fact that the storage is for temporary usage and content will be lost upon
system reboot.

Storage for temporary use Content is lost when the System is rebooted
 Key Takeaways

Traditional Storage data centers have Direct Attached Storage, Network Attached Storage, and Storage
Area Networks which differ in their performance, durability, and cost.

Amazon S3 provides a secure object storage to developers, Amazon CloudFront improves user
experience by accessing the content of the website, and Amazon EFS enables the creation of file storage
to easily access files.

Amazon Glacier is a storage solution to store long-lived and irregularly accessed data, and AWS
Storage Gateway is a service providing secure connection between organization’s data centers and the
cloud storage.

AWS Import/Export service enables easy transfer of large amounts of data into and out of AWS using
physical storage devices, avoiding the Internet.

Ephemeral refers to the fact that the storage is for temporary usage and content will be lost upon system
reboot.
This concludes ‘Storage & Content Delivery.’
The next lesson is ‘Compute Services and Networking.’