AWS Re:Invent 2018 Recap. All About S3

During re:Invent 2018, Amazon Web Services has announced a number of features and updates for its services. In this article, we have collected and overviewed features, related to Amazon S3 storage and it’s classes.

Amazon Glacier Deep Archive

Amazon Glacier Deep Archive, once released in 2019, will be the cheapest cloud storage solution on the market. Here are some facts about it:

• Pricing begins at $0.00099/GB/month. That makes it way cheaper, than standard Amazon Glacier, Microsoft Azure Blob Archive (both starting at $0.004/GB/month), and Google Coldline (starting at $0.007/GB/month.
• Here’s a comparison of 1TB/Month storage costs:

Amazon Glacier Deep Archive	Amazon Glacier Standard	Microsoft Azure Blob Archive	Google Coldline
$1.01 TB/month	$4.1 TB/month	$4.1 TB/month	$7.1 TB/month

Further reading S3 Storage Classes Explained

Facts about Amazon Glacier Deep Archive:

• Fastest data retrieval time - up to 12 hours
• AWS will introduce the cheapest bulk retrieval option for Glacier Deep Archive. We don’t know the pricing yet, but we know it will retrieve data in up to 48 hours. Definitely not your DR solution
• Amazon Glacier Deep Archive will be generally available in 2019 in all AWS/GovCloud regions

Amazon Glacier is amongst the cheapest cloud data storage solutions, but it has a number of peculiarities when it comes to data recovery. Read more about Glacier retrieval types and pricing in our article.

AWS Transfer to SFTP

SFTP may be considered a legacy transfer solution, and yet it’s popular in the corporate world. AWS is encouraging people to switch from typical SFTP solutions with on-premises servers and architecture towards S3-based SFTP server.

The setting up process is fairly simple:

1. Set up an SFTP server endpoint
2. Set up user accounts
3. Associate the endpoint with S3 bucket/buckets. And that’s all. For more details, check the guide by AWS themselves

With AWS SFTP you can use Amazon S3 features, such as: IAM rules and users, versioning, server-side encryption, and multiple storage classes

AWS Transfer to SFTP Pricing

Now, for the most interesting bit, the pricing. While using AWS Transfer for SFTP, you pay:

• $0.30/hour whenever your SFTP endpoint is running
• $0.04/GB of up and down transfer
• Standard storage request and transfer rates from and to Amazon S3
• VPC and PrivateLink charges
• Charges for any other AWS services you associate with AWS SFTP

Best of the Rest

AWS has announced a number of smaller, yet interesting features.

With Amazon S3 Cross-Region Replication to Glacier, you can now copy your data directly to Glacier in the different region. That means you preserve two geographically redundant copies of your data - one in the hot storage and one, for emergencies, in the cold.

Amazon S3 Intelligent Tiering uses machine learning to find and automatically move your data to cheaper S3 storage classes. You can choose either Amazon S3 Infrequent Access, One-Zone Infrequent Access or RRS. If you need data back, Intelligent Tiering will automatically move data to S3 Standard storage.

Further reading Introduction to Amazon S3 Intelligent Tiering

WORM (stands for write once, read many) is a popular storage concept which is needed for various compliance reasons. Previously, only Amazon Glacier was WORM-compliant with its feature, called vault lock-in. However, AWS has introduced an object lock for all Amazon S3 classes. You need to select between two types of data lock-in’s - Governance and Compliance. Governance mode will allow users with certain IAM preferences to remove the lock. Compliance mode will make the lock temporary for all, including the root account.

Further reading Amazon S3 Security Guide

See You Next Year

Some say, that AWS has invented the cloud as we know it. And it keeps re-inventing that concept on a yearly basis - prices are getting down, we got more features, granular control, and flexibility for the numerous services.

Share your favorite announcements and predictions for the year 2019 in the comments.