Introduction to Amazon S3

• Key Concept: Amazon S3 is a foundational AWS service offering virtually limitless object storage.
• Importance: Many websites and AWS services depend on its reliability and scalability.
• Use Cases:
  • Backup and storage
  • Disaster recovery
  • Data archiving
  • Hybrid cloud storage
  • App and media hosting
  • Big data (data lakes)
  • Software updates
  • Static website hosting
• Real-World Examples:
  • Nasdaq (data archival)
  • Sysco (business insights from data analytics)

S3 Structure

• Buckets: Top-level containers for objects.
  • Must have globally unique names.
  • Defined within a specific AWS region.
  • Naming conventions exist (check documentation for the latest).
• Objects:
  • The actual files stored in S3
  • Identified by a key, which is the full file path within the bucket.
  • Example: myfolder1/anotherfolder/myfile.txt
  • S3 doesn't have a native directory concept, but the UI simulates it.
  • Maximum size per object: 5 terabytes.
  • Large files require multipart upload. +5GB files have to use multipart.
• Metadata and Tags
  • Objects can have additional descriptive information (key-value pairs) which can be user-defined or system-generated.

Key Takeaways

• Amazon S3 is a core building block of AWS due to its versatility and scalability.
• Understand buckets, objects, keys, and the importance of naming conventions.
• S3's many use cases make it an essential tool to grasp for DevOps engineers.