Difference between Amazon Glacier and Amazon S3
| Feature | Amazon Glacier | Amazon S3 |
|---|---|---|
| Use Case | Long-term archival of infrequently accessed data. | Frequently accessed data with low-latency requirements. |
| Storage Cost | Lower storage costs, making it economical for long-term retention. | Generally higher storage costs, suitable for actively used data. |
| Durability | High durability with redundant storage across multiple facilities. | High durability with multiple storage classes, each with its redundancy strategy. |
| Retrieval Time | Longer retrieval times (Standard, Expedited, Bulk options available). | Near-instantaneous retrieval for frequently accessed data. |
| Lifecycle Policies | Supports lifecycle policies for automated data management. | Supports lifecycle policies but focused on different storage classes. |
| Data Transfer Acceleration | Supports AWS Transfer Acceleration for faster data uploads. | Supports AWS Transfer Acceleration for faster data uploads. |
| Security | Robust security features, including encryption at rest and in transit. | Robust security features, including encryption at rest and in transit. |
What is Amazon Glacier?
AWS offers a wide range of storage services that can be provisioned depending on your project requirements and use case. AWS storage services have different provisions for highly confidential data, frequently accessed data, and not-so-frequently accessed data. You can choose from various storage types namely, object storage, file storage, block storage services, backups, and data migration options. All of which fall under the AWS Storage Services list.
AWS Glacier: From the aforementioned list, AWS Glacier, is the backup and archival storage provided by AWS. It is an extremely low-cost, long-term, durable, secure storage service that is ideal for backups and archival needs. In a lot of its operations AWS Glacier is similar to S3, and, it interacts directly with S3, using S3-lifecycle policies. However, the main difference between AWS S3 and Glacier is the cost structure. The cost of storing the same amount of data in AWS Glacier is significantly less as compared to S3. Storage costs in Glacier can be as little as $1 for one petabyte of data per month.
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