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Supratip Banerjee for AWS Community Builders

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Amazon S3 Deep Dive (part 1-storage fundamentals)

Storage fundamentals

Web-scale computing is made simpler for customers and developers alike by Amazon S3, which provides Internet storage. Using the object storage platform Amazon S3, you may store and access any volume of data from any location on the internet at any time. There are several forms of storage, which you might not know if you're new to storage.

An object storage-based service is Amazon S3. Take a minute to explore the fundamental distinctions between storage kinds, though, to better comprehend object storage and how it varies from the other storage types.

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Block storage

A block on a storage device is a group of bytes or bits. Block storage files are separated into units called blocks, then they are immediately written to bare blocks on a physical disc. The most effective way to write each block to the disc is to give it a special identification. Blocks do not need to be kept in contiguous regions of the disc because they are given IDs. They can, in fact, be dispersed throughout several locations or drives. Block storage is ideal for systems like relational databases because it allows you to access specific blocks independently of the remainder of the file.

Instead of accessing the complete inventory listing or personnel repository, relational databases allow you to retrieve only a particular element of a file, such as an inventory tracking number or a specific employee ID.

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File Storage

Operating systems have historically stored data in hierarchical file systems that are divided into folders, subfolders, and files, or directories, subdirectories, and files, depending on the operating system.

You might need to search through /var/log or /etc/config while diagnosing a problem on a Linux distribution, for instance. You must decide which file to examine and open once you are within these folders. When working with files in a file-based system, you must either be aware of their precise path and placement or have a mechanism to search the entire structure for the file you require.

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Object Storage

Object storage, in contrast to file-based storage, has a flat structure where the data, known as an object, is housed in a single repository called a bucket. By using important name prefixes and delimiters, objects may be arranged to resemble a hierarchy. Prefixes and delimiters let you group related things to make your data easier to visually arrange and retrieve. These prefixes provide the user interface the impression of a folder and subfolder structure, but the storage is remains flat.

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Amazon S3 fundamentals

An object storage service called Amazon S3 provides performance, security, and scalability that are unmatched in the market. It is purposefully designed with a small feature set that emphasises reliability and simplicity. The same highly scalable, dependable, quick, and affordable data storage infrastructure that Amazon employs to power its own worldwide network of websites is available to you. The service strives to optimise scale advantages and to transfer those advantages to you, the consumer.

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