Amazon S3 Glacier Storage Classes
Dayanantha Shanmugaradnam
1.Introduction
The Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes are purpose-built for data archiving, providing you with high performance, retrieval flexibility, and low-cost archive storage. All S3 Glacier storage classes provide virtually unlimited scalability and are designed for 99.999999999% (11 nines) of data durability. The S3 Glacier storage classes deliver options for fast access to your archive data and low-cost archive storage in the cloud.
2.Overview of S3 Glacier Storage Classes
Amazon S3 Glacier provides three storage classes, each catering to different retrieval speed requirements:
S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval:
Provides the lowest cost storage with milliseconds retrieval, suitable for archive data needing immediate access like medical images or news media assets.
Best for: Data that is rarely accessed but requires millisecond retrieval.
Pricing: Slightly higher than other Glacier classes due to instant access.
Use Cases: Medical images, financial records, and analytics that need occasional but quick retrieval.
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (formerly S3 Glacier):
Offers retrieval in minutes or free bulk retrievals in 5-12 hours, ideal for backup or disaster recovery use cases where immediate access isn't always required.
Best for: Cost-effective storage for data that is accessed once in a while.
Retrieval Speeds:
Expedited (1–5 minutes)
Standard (3–5 hours)
Bulk (5–12 hours)
Use Cases: Backup storage, media archives, and scientific data archives.
S3 Glacier Deep Archive:
The lowest cost storage in the cloud with data retrieval from 12-48 hours, best for long-lived archives like compliance archives or digital media preservation.
Best for: Ultra-low-cost storage for data that is rarely accessed (once a year or less).
Retrieval Speeds:
Standard (12 hours)
Bulk (48 hours)
Use Cases: Long-term regulatory compliance, historical data, and disaster recovery.
Each S3 Glacier storage class has a minimum storage duration for all objects. If you delete, overwrite, or transition the object to a different storage class before the minimum, you are charged for the remainder of that duration.
3.Key Benefits of Amazon S3 Glacier Storage Classes
Retrievals as quick as milliseconds
The Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes provide retrieval options from milliseconds to hours to fit your performance needs. The S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage class delivers milliseconds retrieval for archives that need immediate access, such as medical images or news media assets. S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval provides three retrieval options: expedited retrievals that typically complete in 1–5 minutes, standard retrievals that typically complete in 3–5 hours, and free bulk retrievals that return large amounts of data typically in 5–12 hours. The Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class provides two retrieval options ranging from 12-48 hours.
Unmatched durability and scalability
The Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes run on Amazon's cloud infrastructure with virtually unlimited scalability and are designed for 99.999999999% (11 nines) of durability. Data is redundantly stored across multiple Availability Zones that are physically separated within an Amazon Web Services Region.
Comprehensive security and compliance capabilities
The S3 Glacier storage classes offer sophisticated integration with Amazon CloudTrail to log, monitor, and retain storage API call activities for auditing, and they support three different forms of encryption. These storage classes also support security standards and compliance certifications.
Low cost
All S3 Glacier storage classes offer low-cost storage for specific access patterns, allowing you to archive large amounts of data at a very low cost. This makes it feasible to retain all the data you want for use cases like data lakes, analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, compliance, and media asset archiving. You pay only for what you need, with no minimum commitments or upfront fees.
Most supported by partners, vendors, and Amazon Web Services services
In addition to integration with most Amazon Web Services services, Amazon S3 object storage services include tens of thousands of consulting, systems integrator, and independent software vendor partners, with more joining every month. Amazon Web Services Partner Network partners have adapted their services and software to work with Amazon S3 storage classes for solutions such as backup and recovery, archiving, and disaster recovery. No other cloud provider has more partners with solutions that are pre-integrated to work with their service.
Consistent across your data lifecycle
All the S3 Glacier storage classes are available in all Amazon Web Services China Regions, use the standard S3 APIs, and support all S3 features—such as S3 Storage Lens to view storage usage and activity metrics, Server-Side Encryption for object data, and Amazon PrivateLink to access S3 through a private endpoint in a VPC. You can also use S3 Lifecyle to transition data to any of the S3 storage classes to lower costs as data becomes infrequently or rarely accessed.
4.How S3 Glacier storage classes work
The Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes are purpose-built for data archiving, providing you with the highest performance, the most retrieval flexibility, and the lowest cost archive storage in the cloud. You can now choose from three archive storage classes optimized for different access patterns and storage duration.
Amazon S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval
S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval delivers the lowest cost storage, up to 68% lower cost (than S3 Standard-Infrequent Access), for long-lived data that is accessed once per quarter and requires millisecond retrieval. It is designed for rarely accessed data that still needs immediate access in performance-sensitive use cases like image hosting, online file-sharing applications, medical imaging and health records, news media assets, and satellite and aerial imaging. S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval offers the high durability, high throughput, and similar low latency of S3 Standard-IA, with a lower per-GB storage price and slightly higher per-GB retrieval price.
Amazon S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval delivers low-cost storage, up to 10% lower cost (than S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval), for archive data that is accessed 1-2 times per year and is retrieved asynchronously. S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is the ideal storage class for archive data that does not require immediate access but needs the flexibility to retrieve large sets of data at no cost, such as backup or disaster recovery use cases. S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval delivers the most flexible retrieval options that balance cost with access times ranging from minutes to hours and with free bulk retrievals. It is an ideal solution for backup, disaster recovery, offsite data storage needs, and for when some data needs to occasionally retrieved in minutes, and you don’t want to worry about costs.
Amazon S3 Glacier Deep Archive
S3 Glacier Deep Archive delivers the lowest cost storage, up to 75% lower cost (than S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval), for long-lived archive data that is accessed less than once per year and is retrieved asynchronously. At just $0.00099 per GB-month (or $1 per TB-month), S3 Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest cost storage in the cloud, at prices significantly lower than storing and maintaining data in on-premises tape or archiving data off-site. S3 Glacier Deep Archive is a cost-effective and easy-to-manage alternative to tape. It is designed for customers — particularly those in the financial services, healthcare, media and entertainment and public sector — that retain data sets for 7-10 years or longer to meet customer needs and regulatory compliance requirements.
5.Use Cases for Amazon S3 Glacier
Long-Term Archiving:
S3 Glacier is designed for archiving data that is not frequently accessed, such as backups, logs, and compliance data.
Compliance and Regulatory Requirements:
Storing data for legal or regulatory purposes where long-term retention is required.
Disaster Recovery:
Storing copies of critical data for recovery purposes in case of system failures.
Data Lakes and Analytics:
Storing large datasets for analytics and machine learning tasks, where data is accessed infrequently.
Media Asset Archiving:
Storing large media files like video and audio for long-term storage and retrieval.
Scientific and Research Data Storage
Governments and institutions store climate data, genome research, and space imagery.
6.Amazon S3 Glacier Pricing
Amazon S3 Glacier provides low-cost storage for archival and long-term backup data. The pricing varies based on storage, retrieval speed, and requests. Below is a detailed breakdown of the S3 Glacier pricing model.
Amazon S3 Glacier Storage Pricing
Amazon S3 Glacier has three storage classes with different pricing based on how frequently data needs to be accessed:
Example:
Storing 1 TB (1,024 GB) of data in S3 Glacier Deep Archive for a month costs:
1,024 GB × $0.00099 = $1.01 per month (super cost-effective for long-term storage).
Data Retrieval Pricing
Retrieving data from S3 Glacier incurs additional costs, depending on the retrieval speed:
Example:
Retrieving 100 GB using Standard Retrieval from S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval:
100 GB × $0.01 = $1.00
Request and Lifecycle Pricing
AWS charges for requests and lifecycle transitions when moving data between storage classes.
Example:
Moving 10,000 objects from S3 Standard to S3 Glacier Deep Archive:
(10,000 / 1,000) × $0.05 = $0.50
Additional Costs
Early Deletion Fees:
Glacier Flexible Retrieval: No early deletion fees.
Glacier Deep Archive: Minimum 180-day storage (if deleted before 180 days, AWS charges for the remaining period).
Data Transfer Costs:
Inbound (uploading data) – Free
Outbound (downloading data) – Charged based on AWS region and amount of data.
7.Conclusion
Amazon S3 Glacier storage classes provide cost-effective, long-term data archiving solutions for businesses that need to store large amounts of infrequently accessed data. Whether you need instant retrieval (S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval), flexible retrieval options (S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval), or the lowest-cost archival storage (S3 Glacier Deep Archive), AWS Glacier has a solution for every use case. If your business requires secure, durable, and low-cost storage, S3 Glacier is the perfect fit!