Amazon S3 : Features, Setup, Benefits, Limitations, Use Cases

Monday, June 16, 2025

Amazon S3 : Features, Setup, Benefits, Limitations, Use Cases

Here’s a comprehensive breakdown of Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service),.

Including the: concept, key features, setup process, benefits, limitations, and use cases.

The Concept of Amazon S3

Amazon S3 is an object storage service that provides scalable, durable, and secure storage for any type of data (files, images, backups, logs, etc.) over the internet. It's designed for high availability and allows you to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere.

Key Features

Feature	Description
Object Storage	Stores data as objects within buckets.
Durability	99.999999999% (11 9’s) durability.
Scalability	Virtually unlimited storage.
Security & Access Control	IAM, bucket policies, ACLs, encryption (SSE, KMS).
Versioning	Keeps multiple versions of an object.
Lifecycle Management	Automate transition or deletion of objects.
Storage Classes	S3 Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Glacier, etc.
Event Notifications	Triggers for Lambda, SNS, SQS, etc.
Static Website Hosting	Host websites directly from a bucket.
Relication	Cross-Region or Same-Region replication (CRR/SRR).
Query in Place	Use S3 Select or Athena to query data without moving it.

Setup Overview

Sign in to AWS Console
Go to Amazon S3
Create a Bucket

Choose bucket name (globally unique...eg twtech-s3)
Select region
Configure options like versioning, encryption, etc.

Upload Objects

Via console, CLI, SDK, or API

Manage Permissions

Use IAM policies, bucket policies, ACLs

Enable Features

Enable logging, events, lifecycle rules, etc.

Benefits

High Durability and Availability
Elastic Scalability
Secure and Compliant
Cost-Effective with different storage classes
Easy Integration with AWS services (EC2, Lambda, Athena, etc.)
Global Access over HTTPS
Pay-as-you-go Pricing

Limitations

Limitation	Description
Object Size Limit	Max object size is 5 TB (single PUT up to 5 GB).
Eventual Consistency	Some operations may be eventually consistent (mostly mitigated).
No File System Semantics	Not suitable for applications requiring traditional file system behavior.
Latency	Not ideal for real-time performance-critical workloads.
Cost Management	Can become costly without proper lifecycle and access management.

Common Use Cases

Use Case	Description
Backup & Restore	Store backups, snapshots, and disaster recovery data.
Big Data Analytics	Store logs and datasets for processing using EMR, Athena, etc.
Media Hosting	Store images, videos, and static files.
Static Website Hosting	Host static HTML/CSS/JS websites directly.
Software Delivery	Distribute files, updates, binaries.
Data Archiving	Store cold data in Glacier or Glacier Deep Archive.
IoT Data Storage	Store telemetry data from devices.
Machine Learning	Store training data for ML models (integrates with SageMaker, etc.).

Project: Hands-on

How twtech creates and use s3 buckets for resources.

Go to aws service and search for: s3

Create a bucket: twtechs3

Object Ownership:

ACLs disabled for: security purpose

Control ownership of objects written to this bucket from other AWS accounts and the use of access control lists (ACLs). Object ownership determines who can specify access to objects.

Block Public Access settings for this bucket: security purpose

Bucket Versioning: enabled

Default encryption

Select Encryption type: Server-side encryption with Amazon S3 managed keys (SSE-S3)

Advanced settings

Object Lock

Store objects using a write-once-read-many (WORM) model to help you prevent objects from being deleted or overwritten for a fixed amount of time or indefinitely. Object Lock works only in versioned buckets:

Enable object locking: To prevent bucket from accidental deletion by junior engineers

Create the bucket: twtechs3

How twtech adds (uploads) files to its s3 bucket:

Select the bucket to upload files to and click open.

Upload files: Music, video, images, documents (txt, pdf,words)

How twtech adds Files to its s3 buckets:

How twtech adds Entire folders to its s3 buckets: Music folder

Confirm to upload the files in the folder: Upload

Uploading the files in the folder, this may take a couple of minutes depending on the size of the folder.

From: in progresss of upload.

To:

Upload successful.

To view or access the objects internally by the owner: Select the object, then click on open from the task bar.

This routes twtech traffic to the url of the object: Don’t share this link, it would leak the object to the public

https://twtechs3.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/Music/Bob%20Marley.mp3?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-SHA256&X-Amz-Content-Sha256=UNSIGNED-PAYLOAD&X-Amz-Credential=ASIA6IY357LYJI5FWVQD%2F20250616%2Fus-east-2%2Fs3%2Faws4_request&X-Amz-Date=20250616T150440Z&X-Amz-Expires=300&X-Amz-Security-Token=IQoJb3JpZ2luX2VjEHcaCXVzLWVhc3QtMiJGMEQCIFtUgKV3ziZ6STpUmi4ZxCFryIw4ft3e8APz3xuMiuvgAiBHaHTTNXMCatBCk%2F4KITv1aUB9f9nyRgwPXiT9xgiJxSrWAghgEAAaDDk4MDkyMTc0NDExMiIM0H9H%2FxsEylGV1HQHKrMCJuvH9aMKY82NCKQz4vuskw8FWmd8x683C9RWwUtrczRWfjxhYSB1ca%2F2KZ0FH%2F4xHg3NYYsM%2F%2FXGP6GTdyZ%2BNdnW187ROuSOQDy%2FohPlNRFfNFty03gYnoG4wHEBFKBwP5bPzSWATDQDqLz0LGcoFZ5td2aATDjQPCxdphxe9G3zou35HMnW05PDmSn56Z1dM48fC1ypWD%2FUH8AfbTQ%2Fob1f%2BFTCkZ3fb4vHIjbwm9JnrVxdsaVBoKPRCr%2FJDsaToQzBPQmzV93ZReIRZ4zEkrsAUlJ8LrxLvgXcYVIn7EeHBbiNpTlB2dhjHe95PpR%2FIiw0vjiXMyQkQzdsIMCQRAEjQgqHmbwNhxTycUYj0uPgAOvtFIVc3PwXRzqlHHz4ySgwGlv%2B0JAfBsUdEG5eVi8YqTDCm8DCBjquAmMfOuJHw0bzJGVklV2qi30CAvbB7ECJUKPD0kFxeCpCGuVDwEcd0KDUAlTlC3mabaxxuX2MFH6%2FA4iyPLLDw0UBrsggsRPj2JJH34Aaii2KqC6z%2BQWdBsipJptj7BnYO9vVolz7wtYay%2B%2Bg5QA0OTf0SFPtOz1DXd9DTy00pma2bhGCP4k7MBmCrki%2FXs%2F%2Bxxxxxxxxxxxxxq2p1tsytCWRBnsUFjmGnFXDW3sPDgXREpC4rvPCkcPerKhdSQ8WUzIxI%2FEzQ4WGYq2KldVnD8f%2BWtNsunky4ZDcqBdDVgvPaCrszmCX1X1VKr1ZRUg1xcuqi3uIN%2FKqynq7FCEgmtpGfP8iiXqB5QMdLp00ms0ozjAZiHqxaSr8H35pzdGt7%2B%2BMTpXLhAYzxhGQoF11aL&X-Amz-Signature=51dda3b7266a31266d6ee4c7a5ddb54ff28a8288285e3e6a1ad3502ba959ebe6&X-Amz-SignedHeaders=host&response-content-disposition=inline