Amazon has added two new cloud storage optimization features to its S3 Intelligent-Tiering system that will automatically archive objects that are infrequently accessed.
The new archive access tiers are optimized so that AWS users do not need to build complex systems to recognize the access patterns of objects that might not be accessed for months at a time. The two tiers will also offer rare access at “a very low cost.”
The two new access tiers are labelled Archive Access, which delivers the same performance and pricing as the S3 Glacier storage class, and Deep Archive Access, which works in the same way as the S3 Glacier Deep Archive storage class.
Archive access
In addition to the two new tiers, customers will still be able to use the Frequent Access and Infrequent Access tiers. If an object in the Frequent Access tier has not been accessed for 30 days, it will automatically be moved into the Infrequent Access tier. If either or both of the new archive tiers have been activated, AWS’ S3 Intelligent-Tiering system will automatically move any object that has not been accessed for 90 days to the Archive tier, while any object that has not been accessed for 180 days will be transferred to the Deep Archive tier.
Items placed in the Archive tier can be retrieved within three to five hours, while those in the Deep Archive tier will take up to 12 hours. Businesses that require access to objects at greater speed can pay for faster retrieval.
AWS customers can create a new configuration for the Intelligent-Tiering Archive in the Properties section of their S3 bucket now.
“Now with S3 Intelligent-Tiering, you can get high throughput and low latency access to your data when you need it right away, and automatically pay about $1 per TB per month when objects haven’t been accessed for 180 days or more,” Marcia Villalba, Senior Developer Advocate for Amazon Web Services, explained.
“Already customers of S3 Intelligent-Tiering have realized cost savings up to 40% and now using the new archive access tiers they can reduce storage costs up to 95% for rarely accessed objects.”