S3 storage: how it works, use and integration
S3 (Simple Object Storage) is a new type of storage that enables data to be managed in an object-based, unstructured format, thus maximizing data management efficiency. Initially deployed in the USA by Amazon in March 2006, this technology is a well-known standard for cloud architectures and hybrid hosting. Organizations of all sizes are leveraging this evergreen solution to meet their increasing data storage and accessibility needs.
S3 object storage
Definition and source of the object model
S3 object-based storage is based on an architecture that differs from most standard storage methods. A file becomes a totally independent object, enhanced with metadata and linked to a single unique key. This approach eliminates the decentralized constraints of conventional file systems. Amazon's simple storage service uses containers to organize these objects, each of them now capable of hosting up to a million objects according to the latest AWS development in November 2024. This type of storage leverages the cloud and AI for highly-scalable, reliable, fast storage at a very low cost.
This object architecture enables theoretical expansion capacity. Unlike traditional systems, which quickly reach their physical limits, data distributor storage is focused on certain nodes.
The explosion in the volume of data is a growth lever for this S3 storage model to meet the challenges linked in particular to the growth of AI, IoT, etc.
The difference between object, block and file storage
Block storage enables data to be organized into volumes directly mounted on servers, sorted by equal size. This favors the performance of databases and operating systems. This approach has two setbacks in terms of localization and scalability.
Whereas file storage employs a standard hierarchy of folders and sub-folders, which facilitates end-user navigation, but creates potential bottlenecks for metadata. To store more data, you need to add more systems, and performance is complex to manage.
What exactly is S3 storage, and what does it offer?
Over the past few years, S3 has become the market reference for object-based storage. This distributed model means that each object exists on its own, with its unique metadata. Universal accessibility via HTTP/HTTPS protocols eliminates any restrictions induced by a hierarchical system. Geographical replication and the absence of structural constraints guarantee greater availability and continuously high performance. S3 brings data immutability, blocking data modification or deletion for a defined period of time. Immutable backup has contributed to the widespread adoption of S3 storage at UltraEdge, helping to safeguard the most critical files and applications.
This convergence between object storage and analytics demonstrates the model's adaptability to the growing needs of organizations, linked for example to the use of AI in real time or with augmented reality.
S3 storage: how can IT infrastructures gain from it?
Scalability and elasticity
Scalability is one of the key advantages of S3 storage. The flat architecture of S3 storage enables virtually infinite growth, without the constraints of hierarchical systems. Data can be incrementally added, without the need for any major reconfiguration. Bucket quotas are increased from 100 to 100,000 per account, with expansion possibilities up to a million buckets. This responds to current architectures where each application, service or department can have its own data containers. No need to think ahead when adapting infrastructure, and complicated provisioning is made easy!
Automatic adaptation to load variations measures elasticity. Depending on data size, from a few thousand gigabytes to several petabytes, resources are adjusted instantly. The problem is linked to the size of the data to be managed, and optimal management of peak loads is an undeniable advantage. Costs follow actual consumption, optimizing customers' budget allocation.
Adopting a distributed architecture maximizes overall performance. In UltraEdge data centers, S3 storage optimizations maximize workload efficiency, with very minimal latency. In fact, S3 storage can deliver up to 10 times better performance than previous solutions, delivering a more efficient ongoing service for hosted customers.
High availability and durability
Durability in excess of 99.99% ensures maximum, long-lasting protection against potential data loss. Reliability is built on the replication of objects to geolocated sites, often referred to as Availability Zones (AZ). Continuous error correction and integrity checks proactively detect and correct any potential corruption.
A highly-available environment is characterized by an architecture with no single point of failure. Data accessibility is maximized, even if an incident occurs across an entire availability zone. Resilience is suitable for critical applications and the most sensitive services, which would be unlikely to withstand a service interruption.
Advanced versioning features and protection against malicious deletion reinforce this robustness. A multi-layered approach provides effective protection against human error and cyberattacks. Edge datacenters adopt this storage system to reduce potential downtime.
Metadata management and accessibility
The value of stored data is greatly enhanced by metadata. This contextual information , carried by each object, offers contextual information such as: date of creation, last modification author, classification or any other relevant attribute. And, as a result, makes it easier to organize and search huge bodies of data.
Developments in sovereign data centers such as UltraEdge and hyperscalers enable direct querying of the DB. Each team can classify and segment data extensively, simply by querying the various catalogs.
In the example of an image bank managed by a media group, instead of manual browsing, content can be easily retrieved by multi-criteria input, including size, tags and geolocation.
The use of object storage is permanently transformed!
What's more, accessibility is universal with REST APIs that simplify integration, whatever the type of application. IPv6 eliminates address translation constraints. Each access point creates personalized paths to the data it seeks, making authorization management a simple formality.
Security policies
Natively, the security afforded by SEO enables us to ensure the tryptic: encryption, access control and full auditing. Encryption is carried out in transit and at rest, with 100% integrated key management or delegated to specialized external solutions. Flexibility to satisfy the most stringent requirements, especially for the most sensitive data and applications. Identity and Access Management (IAM) policies and/or bucket strategies implemented by hosting providers offer unparalleled granularity in rights management. This answers the questions: Who is accessing? Which resource? When? and from where?
Note that there are tools to prevent accidental exposure by preventing public distribution of buckets. This "secure by default" approach drastically reduces the risk of data leakage.
Last but not least, auditing features ensure exhaustive traceability of every operation. UltraEdge records every access, modification or potential intrusion attempt. Traceability complies with various standards, and greatly facilitates any investigation in case of incident or cyberattack.
Use of S3 object storage
S3 storage can be used in a number of situations.
Long-term archiving
Archiving is one of the most frequent uses of S3 storage, with no size limit. There is strong competition on costs between French and global hyperscalers and hosting providers. The idea is to offer very low costs, for data that is of lesser value and therefore not frequently used.
It is possible to restore several terabytes of resources in a few hours or even less, instead of days, demonstrating the effectiveness of this approach when storing very large volumes of data.
The resource lifecycle is maximized by advanced management mechanisms, automating transitions according to pre-defined rules. What's more, the data retention policy is adapted to the legal constraints inherent in each sector. For example, the Object Lock tool preserves the immutability of archives for the specified legal period. This approach, also observed by UltraEdge, enables us to meet the compliance demands of the most regulated sectors, such as healthcare and finance. Where data and key document retention is more than critical.
Regular backups of data
In Edge data centers and IX data centers (based in 7 locations), UltraEdge leverages the native resilience of S3 object storage to simplify protection strategies. Automatic inter-regional replication limits local constraints. Any organization can preserve its critical services and applications, without having to manage an increasingly complex secondary infrastructure. For complex corporate environments, where the volumes to be protected can reach tens of terabytes on a daily basis, it is possible to manage the backup of millions of objects at once. This eases the management of backups in every department.
Highly-granular backups make it easy to recover the data you need, without any hassle. It is possible to recover the required files in a segmented way, which can be invaluable for the most sensitive or critical services. The advantages of UltraEdge data centers in France include a drastic reduction in data recovery times and fully minimized impact on production systems.
Storage of media files or static content
Websites benefit tremendously from S3 storage to deliver their static content, such as recurring visuals or CSS files.
This approach effectively frees the application server from distribution tasks, boosting overall performance. Integration with CDNs or local data centers - for example, with our network of 250 data centers - ensures that content is delivered as close as possible to each user.
Fully automated scalability enables us to adjust to irregular and intense peaks in traffic. If a piece of content goes viral, or a specific event attracts hundreds of thousands or even millions of simultaneous connections, the S3 storage-enhanced infrastructure can easily handle the load peaks. No need for technical teams to worry about scaling!
Big Data analysis
Massive data analysis via S3 is an ideal starting point for data lakes. Storage capacity pushed to the extreme can aggregate terabytes of heterogeneous information from multiple sources. Centralization facilitates highly-complex analytical processing, for example, using AI agents and specific algorithms.
The latest advances in S3 remove the usual complexity of data extraction, and facilitate recompression for frequent analysis. This leaves teams free to interrogate archived applications using dedicated tools.
Ultimately, the operation of processing pipelines is considerably simplified. Everything is immediately actionable via the tools provided in Edge data centers, with no need for upstream migration. This fluidity is now essential for the implementation of analytical and Big Data projects, for which the reduction in related complexity is significant!
Integration in a cloud or hybrid environment
S3 compatibility with the cloud
API compatibility with S3 is a standard for hosting and cloud providers. With this in mind, UltraEdge offers completely compatible services, which guarantees the portability of applications. Standardization eliminates the risk of vendor lock-in, and can facilitate an ecosystem with a mixed cloud and data center hosting strategy. As a result, the compatibility of S3-compatible tools is growing steadily, and the majority of enterprise software packages now include them by default.
Interoperability means simplified integration into existing infrastructure. With pre-configured connectors to hosting or cloud services, deployment of a hybrid ecosystem is further encouraged. Since these solutions can be easily synchronized with Cloud integrations (such as Google Cloud Storage), there is no need to create gateways. In fact, support for multi-cloud systems via local data centers becomes a reality even for non-experts.
Connecting business applications and third-party solutions
S3 integration into business applications is based on standardized REST APIs and SDKs available in a variety of languages, including JavaScript and Ruby. This technical diversity enables developers to rapidly integrate advanced S3 storage into different solutions.
SaaS solutions also offer native S3 integration. In this context, the full potential of storage can be exploited, and the scalability of applications is reinforced.
The architecture made up of micro services - where each service uses its own dedicated buckets - is highly modular. It also facilitates data isolation and simplifies access & permissions management in a complex ecosystem. DevOps and experts in Edge data centers can directly provision resources with useful storage.
Perspectives and Integration options with UltraEdge
Data management is a strategic issue for business competitiveness, and S3 storage has been an essential solution for several years now.
UltraEdge is constantly enriching the S3 ecosystem, thanks to its Edge computing dimension and its ultra-dense network of 250 data centers, bringing storage closer to users. This hybrid approach enables scalability with the advantages of the cloud, while combining the maximum performance of local proximity. The S3 robustness and unrivalled responsiveness of Edge data centers is an ideal solution for organizations of all sizes.
Integrating an optimized Edge infrastructure, for example, opens up new perspectives for continuous IoT applications. Local data processing and "smart" synchronization with S3 is easy, while taking into account the criticality of business apps. A multi-tier architecture that boosts storage cost efficiency and increases user performance.
Last but not least, the most frequently requested content can be accessed locally, while archiving services gain in durability with S3. This hybrid mix is optimally aligned with high expectations in terms of performance and resilience. With the continuous improvement of S3 storage, the relevance of this integrated approach within UltraEdge data centers is a token of sustainability and efficiency for future infrastructures.