What is Amazon S3?

Options

1. A relational database service that is managed by AWS for you
2. Object storage for files, with high durability, used over HTTP (Correct option)
3. A container orchestrator that schedules and runs your workloads
4. A CDN that caches content at locations close to your users

Answer

Object storage for files/blobs with high durability, accessed over HTTP APIs

Why

S3 stores files (called objects) in buckets, almost without size limits and with very high durability (data copied across facilities).

You read and write via an HTTP API, not like a normal disk. Typical uses: user uploads, images, backups, static websites, data for analytics.

Common trick: give the browser a temporary pre-signed URL so it uploads directly to S3 instead of through your server.

Remember

S3 = durable storage for files in the cloud.

Key terms

• Amazon S3
• Object storage
• HTTP
• Object
• API
• URL