AWS Storage Options Compared: EBS vs S3 vs EFS

What are the differences between AWS (Amazon Web Services) storage options? This article breaks down Amazon EBS, Amazon S3, and Amazon EFS. 

What is Amazon EBS?

The first storage option you may encounter when learning AWS is Elastic Block Store (EBS).  As the name indicates, EBS uses block-level storage technology, which breaks up data into separate pieces called blocks. This type of storage is considered reliable and efficient and can also be quite fast.

Block storage is used in storage area network (SAN) solutions, which are common in traditional data centers. You will likely use EBS early in your AWS journey because it is attached to the AWS computer solution EC2, which is a fundamental element of Amazon’s cloud architecture.

Amazon EBS Features

An EBS volume is attached to an EC2 instance, but the good thing is that it is persistent data. You can detach EBS volumes and re-attach them to other EC2s, and they are billed separately from instances. 

When launching an EC2 instance, you are offered a choice of EBS volumes using either SSD or magnetic drives. AWS cloud storage pricing varies, but AWS free tier options include 30 GB of storage and up to 2,000,000 input/output (I/O) processes (with EBS Magnetic).

You are also allowed 1GB of snapshot storage. Volume types include: general purpose SSD (gp2 and gp3); provisioned IOPS SSD (io1 and io2); throughput optimized HDD (st1); cold HDD (sc1); and magnetic (standard)

EBS volumes are stored redundantly in a single availability zone (AZ), with an AWS guarantee of 99.999% availability. Access is secured by IAM Policies, Roles, and Security Groups.

Consider walking through this tutorial about AWS EBS encryption.

Amazon EBS Limitations

The performance of EBS is entirely dependent on the volume configuration in use. You can select between a solid-state drive (SSD) or hard disk drive (HDD) and choose a level of provisioned IOPS using SSDs; file sizes on EBS are limited to the size of your selected volume, which tops out at 16 TB.

Amazon EBS Use Cases

Use EBS when you want stored data for your provisioned EC2 instances. EBS volumes include the AMI root volume, which comes with the EC2, plus any EBS volumes added on. You can attach a single EBS volume to multiple EC2s in the same AZ, but only when you use io1 or io2. 

What is Amazon S3?

Object storage is a way to handle unstructured data, such as audio files, images, or email. Unlike units in block storage, data is separated into individual files in object storage. It is well suited for the large amounts of data held in the cloud.

Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) is highly scalable, flexible, and durable, offering significant cost savings and robust security. It’s accessible from anywhere on the internet and allows for replication across regions. 

Amazon S3 Features

Amazon S3 uses containers for data known as buckets. You can store virtually any form of data in S3, and capacity is virtually unlimited. S3 works hand-in-hand with AWS Lambda, and you can easily perform batch operations on large amounts of S3 objects.

Storage classes in S3 include variations of S3 Standard, S3 Intelligent-Tiering, and S3 Glacier. You can set up data so that it has a lifecycle, moving from more active data to the deepest archive levels of Glacier. 

Interested in learning more about S3? Learn with Bart Castle's step-by-step tutorial on working with Amazon S3.

Amazon S3 Limitations

Object file sizes can be no more than 5 TB. The retrieval of deeply archived data may not be instantaneous and may cost extra money. S3 has a flat structure with no hierarchical organization (although you can mimic folders by using file name prefixes).

Amazon S3 Use Cases

S3 buckets are very effective as reservoirs for the backup of critical data. They also work well when it comes to data lifecycle management and archiving. Further, you can use S3 buckets as data lakes for sophisticated technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence. Additionally, you can use S3 to host simple web pages or powerful cloud-native applications.

Which should you use: EBS or EFS? See Elastic Block Storage vs. S3: AWS Storage Options.

What is Amazon EFS?

If you’re just looking for a managed file system that resembles what you might have used in a traditional company intranet, Amazon’s Elastic File System (EFS) is a good choice. Amazon EFS is a serverless shared file system for AWS compute devices managed by AWS. EFS is a POSIX-based file system similar to that used on Linux machines.

Amazon EFS Features

Amazon’s EFS service is fully elastic, meaning it grows and shrinks as files are added or removed. It allows for simultaneous file access from multiple EC2 instances, and there are no limits on the system size.

Like S3, EFS has multiple storage classes. Using EFS Lifecycle Management, you can automatically move files between Amazon EFS Standard-Infrequent Access (EFS Standard-IA) and Amazon EFS One Zone-Infrequent Access (EFS One Zone-IA).

Amazon EFS Limitations

File size is limited to 47.9 TB, and guaranteed availability is 99.99% (as opposed to five 9s for S3). 

Amazon EFS Use Cases 

EFS works very well as a content management system (CMS), and its hierarchical nature allows for easy navigation. It serves as a good platform for DevOps, and its performance and scalability make EFS well-suited for machine learning and data analytics workloads.  

Final Thoughts

There are additional AWS storage options that we did not discuss today. For example, AWS EC2 instance store is for temporary scratch storage on a single instance. Other options include AWS Storage Gateway, Snow Family, DataSync, and Backup.

Ultimately, choosing from EBS, S3, and EFS will depend on your company's requirements, including data usage patterns and cost constraints. Whatever the needs, you can be sure that there are effective AWS cloud storage options that will do the trick.

Interested in learning more? Check out these three CBT Nuggets courses: 

• Working with Amazon S3 Online Training

• AWS EBS Tutorial: How to Implement AWS EBS Encryption Online Training

• How to Manage AWS EFS with Python and PowerShell Online Training

Not a CBT Nuggets subscriber? Create your account now.