What is Amazon S3, and how is it used?

Amazon provides a scalable cloud storage service, a simple storage service commonly called Amazon S3. It allows storage and retrieval of large amounts of data on the internet. S3 offers a simple yet secure object storage infrastructure. It is:

• Scalable

• Highly available

• Durable

• Supports Integration with AWS

• Reliable

Key components

The following are some of the key components for AWS S3.

Buckets

A bucket is a container of objects you want to store in the cloud. It should have a globally unique namespace. It's analogous to a folder in a file system. All objects are stored in a bucket.

Objects

An object is the content being stored in the bucket. It is the fundamental storage unit. Considering a bucket as a folder, an object is analogous to a file in a file system. Objects have a limitation of size. They cannot be more than 5TB. An object can be any type of file, such as:

• Media files

• JSON or CSV files

• SDK or jar files

• Database backup

S3 storage classes

AWS offers various storage classes, which provide different levels of durability, availability, performance, and cost. You can choose any storage class based on your requirements.

S3 bucket demo

Sign in to your AWS account and follow the following steps. In this demo, you will learn how to create, configure, and delete a bucket, upload, view, copy, and delete the object

Create a bucket

1. Open the AWS management console and search for S3.

2. The S3 dashboard opens. Click on the "Create bucket" button.

3. Give your bucket a name. Ensure that the name is globally unique. Choose a region that is closer to your clients. Under object ownership, you can edit the access control list (ACL).

4. According to your requirements, choose the encryption and add an object lock. Then click on the "Create bucket" button.

5. Your bucket is successfully created. Click on the bucket name to open it.

Add an object

1. Open your bucket by clicking on it. Click on the upload button to upload an object.

2. You can drag or drop your objects. Once uploaded, the following window opens.

3. Choose the storage class and adjust the permissions and properties of your object according to your requirements.

4. The object will be uploaded successfully. You can click on the object name to view its details.

5. The details of the object are displayed. You can use the link to view your object. However, in this case, if we click on the link, it will show an error, as we blocked permission to access the bucket while creating it.

Create & delete a folder

1. Navigate to the buckets dashboard and click on the create folder button. This will create a folder. It will appear next to your other objects. Now you can move your object to the folder as well.

2. You can delete the folder by selecting it and clicking the "Delete" button.

3. You will need to confirm by writing "permanently delete."

Delete a bucket

1. Go to the bucket dashboard. Select the bucket and click on the delete button. For deleting a bucket you will need to empty the bucket. Click on "empty bucket configurations."

2. Once the bucket is empty, you can quickly delete it. Confirm the deletion by writing "permanently delete". The bucket will be deleted.