Amazon S3 Glacier

Amazon S3 Glacier is a low-cost cloud storage service designed specifically for data archiving and long-term backup. It’s part of the Amazon S3 family but optimized for infrequently accessed data that you want to keep securely and durably for months, years, or even decades.

Key Features of Amazon S3 Glacier:

• Low Cost: Extremely cheap compared to standard S3 storage — designed for archival data.

• Durability: Designed for 99.999999999% (11 nines) durability.

• Data Retrieval Options: You can retrieve data with different speeds:

  • Expedited: Minutes (for urgent access).

  • Standard: Hours (3-5 hours typically).

  • Bulk: Cheapest option, but slower (up to 12 hours).

• Vaults and Archives: Data is stored in vaults (containers) with archives (your files).

• Security: Supports encryption at rest and in transit, and integrates with AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

• Compliance: Meets regulatory requirements for long-term data storage (like HIPAA, GDPR, etc.).