A couple of decades ago, all of the people’s data was either stored in the form of a hard copy, a floppy disk, or early CDs. As the technology progressed, the amount of data started growing a lot. Just a little while back, a memory card of a few dozens of megabytes was a lot, and today, people use memory cards that can hold onto gigabytes of data. Indeed, the need for storage is growing exponentially and is becoming more and more important to safely store your data.
But, in today’s world, even memory cards might be outdated. Sure, they are still useful, but the data on it could easily disappear from it, or you could simply lose it. This is why cloud storage is a much better option. It allows you to download your files on a server from anywhere in the world, and you can have access to them at any place as well.
However, even though there are amazing cloud storage out there, a lot of people still do not know how and why to use them. In this article, you will be able to learn about S3 Bucket, a great storage space service that you can use to store your data safely.
What is it exactly?
Before we get into more details, let’s go through some basics about this service. First of all, What is S3 bucket exactly? S3 bucket represents AWS’s cloud storage service. The S3 in it stands for simple storage service, and it is exactly how it sounds! It is a simple yet safe, cheap, and effective way to store, retrieve, access, and back up any amount of your data at any place, at any time.
Unlike many other servers like this, S3 is object-based storage. This means that once you upload your data, all of it is stored as objects. Each of them has three main components. These include the object’s content, its unique identifier, as well as its metadata (the object’s name, size, and URL). However, an object can’t be independent, it has to exist within a bucket. But, do not worry, there can be hundreds of these buckets in each Amazon account.
The bucket system is very useful
The buckets that you store your files in are quite similar to the folders on your computer. All of them have their own unique name, which can be used only once. This is, of course, quite useful for uniquely identifying resources as well as for static website hosting with domain names. And the best thing is, there is no limit on the number of files that can be stored in your bucket. Moreover, buckets provide you with extra features like version control and policies.
What you can also do is use different buckets for just a single application. For instance, an app that you use to store medical records can use a couple of buckets. It can use one for the private data of the customer and another for the whitepapers.
You can create your own S3 permissions
To help you manage public access to S3 resources, Amazon provides you with the ability to define settings for blocking access points, accounts as well as buckets. And of course, public access to new objects, access points, and buckets is not allowed by default.
The Block public access settings have a few options that you can use. You can apply these in any combination to your bucket and even to the whole AWS account. When you do it for the whole account, these settings will be applied to every single bucket in it. Now let’s go over the four options you can use to manage and access S3 buckets.
BlockPublicAcls
When you set this option to TRUE, no new ACL definitions will be allowed. However, the existing ones will still be applied. This means that if there is a particular bucket with an ACL that grants public access, BlockPublicAcls will not affect it.
IgnorePublicAcls
When the IgnorePublicAcls option is set to TRUE, your Amazon S3 will ignore all public ACLs on a bucket, as well as any objects it might contain. So, all public access that is granted by a certain object or a bucket ACL will not apply.
BlockPublicPolicy
When you set BlockPublicPolicy to TRUE, only existing policies will apply to the bucket, while no new ones can be attached to it. So, if there is a bucket policy that allows public access, this option will not affect it.
RestrictPublicBuckets
The last option that you can use is RestrictPublicBuckets. When this option is set to TRUE, and if there are policies that grant public access, the access will be restricted only to the AWS service principals, as well as authorized users within the bucket owner’s account.
It is very secure
As we have already mentioned, S3 is secure by default. With such a high inclination towards security, S3 is one of the most popular choices among companies. Of course, this does not mean that storing publicly accessible information is not possible in S3.
It just locks up all the data with high security unless you specify in the settings the opposite. Moreover, S3 maintains many compliance programs. These include EU Data Protection Directive, FedRAMP, PCI-DSS, FISMA, and many more. All of this is can help you meet your industry’s regulatory requirements.
It is affordable
Compared to other cloud storage solutions, S3 is quite cheap. And the best thing is, you only have to pay for what you use. There is no setup and no upfront costs. In addition, S3 also offers a free tier which is available every month for the first year of use. So, if you use S3, you will avoid paying for space and bandwidth that you do not need.
In a world where data storage has become so crucial, it is important to have a way to store it safely and for a decent price. S3 is an amazing tool to use, whether for your mobile or web application storage requirements. With its scalability and pricing system, S3 is certainly a good cloud storage choice for any small or large business.
With all of its perks, it has attracted even businesses like Netflix. But of course, S3 can be also used as a personal storage solution. In summary, for whatever purpose you might need cloud storage, you can use S3.
