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Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class

Dayanantha Shanmugaradnam

1.Introduction

Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering is a cost-effective storage class designed for data with unknown or changing access patterns. It automatically moves objects between frequent, infrequent, and archival storage tiers based on usage, helping users reduce storage costs without operational overhead.

This storage class is ideal for workloads with unpredictable access patterns, such as big data analytics, machine learning, and backup management.

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S3 Intelligent-Tiering is one of six Amazon S3 storage classes, which include:

  • S3 Standard Storage

  • S3 Standard – Infrequent Access Storage

  • S3 One Zone – Infrequent Access Storage

  • S3 Glacier Storage

  • S3 Glacier Deep Archive

  • S3 Intelligent-Tiering Storage

The S3 storage classes are based on data access frequency, as illustrated here:

The S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class supports all Amazon S3 features, including the following:

  • S3 Inventory, for verifying the access tier of objects

  • S3 Replication, for replicating data to any AWS Region

  • S3 Storage Lens, for viewing storage usage and activity metrics

  • Server-side encryption for protecting object data

  • S3 Object Lock for preventing accidental deletion of data

  • AWS PrivateLink, for accessing Amazon S3 through a private endpoint in a virtual private cloud (VPC)

2.Key Features of Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering

  1. Automated Data Tiering: At the heart of Intelligent Tiering is its ability to automatically move data between two access tiers: frequent access and infrequent access. These transitions are based on usage patterns, ensuring that users only pay for the storage tier their data genuinely requires.

  2. Automated Cost Optimization: Unlike traditional storage solutions where users might pay high rates for rarely accessed data, Intelligent-Tiering dynamically lowers costs. Data that hasn’t been accessed for 30 days is automatically moved to the cheaper infrequent access tier.

  3. No Performance Impact: Despite cost reductions, Intelligent-Tiering offers the same low latency and high throughput experience as the S3 Standard class, making it perfect for workloads requiring consistent performance.

  4. Easy Integration: Users can seamlessly integrate Intelligent-Tiering with other AWS services, such as analytics tools and machine learning frameworks, enhancing their workflow efficiency.

  5. Monitoring and Reporting: S3 Intelligent-Tiering includes advanced monitoring capabilities, allowing users to track storage usage, costs, and data movements between tiers effortlessly.

  6. Performance and Durability:

  • Low Latency and High Throughput: S3 Intelligent-Tiering provides the same low latency and high throughput performance as S3 Standard.

  • High Durability: Designed for 99.999999999% (11 nines) durability across multiple Availability Zones.

  • High Availability: Designed for 99.9% availability over a given year.

3.How Does Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering Work?

There are five S3 Intelligent-Tiering access tiers based on data access frequency:

  1. Frequent Access tier – This is the default storage tier for newly created or transitioned objects. All the objects you access often or within 30 days remain here, providing high throughput performance and low latency.

  2. Infrequent Access tier – Objects automatically move to this tier after 30 consecutive days of no activity. You’ll still enjoy low latency and high throughput.

  3. Archive Instant Acces tier – The service automatically moves objects to this tier if they haven’t been accessed for 90 days in a row. This will still give you millisecond access time, low latency, and high throughput rates.

  4. Archive Access tier – This tier allows you to choose whether to move items that are accessible asynchronously and that have not been accessed within the last 90 days. If you haven’t accessed the data for more than 90 days in a row, you can skip the Archive Instant Access tier and use this tier instead to save even more money.

  • Additionally, you can extend the time before your data moves to this tier — a minimum of 90 days and a maximum of 730 days.

  • Once archived, retrieving that data takes three to five hours more than within the Archive Instant Access tier. However, Archive Access offers slightly cheaper storage ($0.0036 compared to $0.0040 for Archive Instant Access).

  1. Deep Archive Access tier – This tier is for asynchronously accessible data you haven’t accessed for over 180 consecutive days. As with Archive Access, you must activate it. Upon opting in, you can extend the last-access time for archiving by up to 730 days.

Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering provides three automatic and two optional storage tiers. Your data automatically moves to the next, lower-cost tier when you don’t access it — up to 90 consecutive days.

If you prefer, you can extend the last access duration before archiving up to 730 days to continue enjoying millisecond access, low latency, and high throughput performance. You can also choose even cheaper storage at the cost of more extended data access wait times.

4.Use Cases for S3 Intelligent-Tiering

  • Data Lakes for Big Data Analytics Organizations with large-scale data lakes often experience changing access patterns depending on analytical workloads. S3 Intelligent-Tiering helps minimize storage costs while ensuring high-performance access for frequently queried datasets.

  • Media Asset Management Media companies managing extensive libraries of videos, images, or audio files often find certain assets becoming less relevant over time. Intelligent-Tiering automatically transitions infrequently accessed assets to cost-effective tiers without affecting accessibility when needed.

  • Machine Learning Model Development Machine learning pipelines require accessing training datasets periodically. Intelligent-Tiering ensures that such datasets are readily available while optimizing storage costs when they're not actively being used.

  • Backup and Disaster Recovery Intelligent-Tiering is ideal for backup solutions where data might only be accessed during restoration events or audits. It lowers costs without compromising data availability in critical situations.

  • IoT Data Management Internet of Things (IoT) systems generate vast amounts of sensor data. Often, older data is accessed less frequently but still needs to be stored for compliance or long-term analysis. Intelligent-Tiering keeps such data affordable to store.

  • Healthcare and Research Data Medical records, research datasets, and patient data have dynamic access requirements. Intelligent-Tiering ensures that critical records remain accessible while archiving seldom-accessed ones affordably.

  • Gaming Industry Gaming companies often store user profiles, game telemetry, or development assets. Access patterns can vary widely depending on active player bases or development cycles, making Intelligent-Tiering an excellent choice for cost control.

  • E-commerce and Transactional Data Retailers store vast amounts of transactional and behavioral data for insights and personalization. Intelligent-Tiering helps manage this data efficiently, adapting to shifts in usage over time.

5.Costs of AWS S3 Intelligent Tiering

You pay for monthly storage, requests, and data transfer. When using Intelligent-Tiering, you also pay for a monthly per-object fee for monitoring and automation. While there is no retrieval fee in S3 Intelligent-Tiering and no fee for moving data between tiers, you do not manipulate each tier directly.

S3 Intelligent Tier is a bucket, and it has tiers within it that objects move through. Objects in the Frequent Access tier are billed at the same rate as S3 Standard, objects stored in the Infrequent Access tier are billed at the same rate as S3 Standard Infrequent Access, objects stored in the Archive Access tier are billed at the same rate as S3 Glacier and objects stored in the Deep Archive access tier are billed at the same rate as S3 Deep Glacier.

The amount you pay will depend on your usage. Here are some quick pointers:

  • Frequent Access tier pricing – $0.023 per gigabyte (GB) for the first 50 terabytes (TB) per month; $0.022/GB for the next 450 TB/Month; $0.021/GB for over 500 TB/Month

  • Infrequent Access tier pricing – $0.0125/GB for all storage per month

  • Archive Instant Access tier pricing – $0.004/GB for all storage per month

  • Archive Access tier pricing – $0.0036/GB for all storage per month

  • Deep Archive Access tier pricing – $0.00099/GB for all storage per month

6.Conclusion

Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering is an efficient, cost-optimized storage solution for workloads with changing access patterns. It automates data movement, eliminates retrieval fees, and reduces storage costs while maintaining high availability and durability.

For businesses handling large-scale data, S3 Intelligent-Tiering ensures seamless and cost-efficient storage management without manual intervention.

7.Reference

  1. Object Storage Classes – Amazon S3

  2. Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering Storage Class

  3. Getting Started Using Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering

  4. Managing storage costs with Amazon S3 Intelligent-Tiering

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