Cloud computing and technology – popularly referred to as the cloud – has redefined the way we store and share our information. It has helped us transcend the limitations of using a physical device to share and opened a whole new dimension of the internet. We shall shortly see the why and how of the above. The providers making such services available are know are Cloud Service Providers or Hyperscalars or Cloud Providers or simply as Providers , etc. The leaders in this space are AWS, GCP, Azure, etc.
Cloud Computing has been around for close to 2 decades now (with AWS being the first Cloud Service Provider which started in 2006 and was the only Hyperscalar in market for a complete 4 years after inception). So by now cloud computing is widely recognized by name, but few people really understand how it works. This whitepaper is focused on AWS, but other providers have similar services to AWS. Cloud computing had its early beginnings in the form of Grid Computing, where resources were up and running on a network of connected computers. The same concept has evolved today and abstracted even more and across wider geographical area leading to emergence of what we call today as Cloud. Now why is it called a Cloud – because the location of the Resource or Server hosting the resource on the connected computers or computing devices or data centers does not matter. We simply say that our ‘Database is hosted on the Cloud’ OR ‘our Compute Resources are hosted on the Cloud’.
So then how do we use these digital resources stored in the virtual space – it is by way of networks. It allows people to share information and applications without being restricted by their physical location. We can say that Cloud Computing is the ‘on-demand delivery of IT services and resources over the Internet with a pay-as-you-go pricing model’. Instead of buying, owning, and maintaining physical Data Centers and Servers, you can access technology services, such as computing power, storage, and databases, on an as-needed basis from a cloud provider.
Organizations of every type, size, and industry are using the cloud for a wide variety of use cases, such as data backup, disaster recovery, email, virtual desktops, software development, big data analytics, and customer-facing web applications.
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TYPES OF CLOUD STORAGE - CHOOSING THE RIGHT SOLUTION
Introduction to Cloud
• What is Cloud
• Cloud Platform features
• Architecture of Cloud
Interaction with Cloud Services
• Ways to interact with Cloud – Console, CLI,
Cloudshell and SDK Libraries
Cloud Computing vs Traditional
Computing
• Why Cloud computing became so popular?
Availability Zones & Regions on Cloud
• Geographical distribution of resources
• POP , Cloudfront Edge , regional Edge Cache
Need of Storage Services
• What is the need of cloud in Organizations?
• Benefits of Cloud to Organizations
Cloud Storage Classes, Models,
Platforms
• Storage Classes
• Cloud Models
• Pricing Models
Cloud Storage Services
• What are Cloud Services?
• What are Computing Services & Storage
Services?
Demos & Use Cases
3. 3
INTRODUCTION TO CLOUD
• Blend of Computers which provide compute capacity, hard disk drives
for storage requirements of compute as well as other storage related
business requirements
• Protects user information via encryption, etc while transferring data
• Enables Storage of data as per business case
• Allows multi-cloud support
• Enables scaling of resources as per business requirement
Storage
Security
Networking
Computing
Databases
Notification
Queues
AI / ML
AWS
4. 4
CLOUD INFRASTRUCTURE SERVICE REVENUES IN Q4 2023
145.00
196.00
243.00
314.00
412.63
478.32
563.59
678.79
0
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
800
2017 2018 2019 2020 2021 2022 2023* 2024*
Market in Billion USD
End user spending
has continuously
increased over the
past decade
Annual Cloud
IT spend
($/year)
Reference : https://www.statista.com/statistics/273818/global-revenue-generated-with-cloud-computing-since-2009/
6. 6
CLOUD COMPUTING VS TRADITIONAL COMPUTING
01
02 03
06
05
04
10
11
12
09 08
07
Scalability
Easy to scale up & down
Setup time
Low infrastructure setup
time
Space
No physical space
need to be allocated
for infrastructure
Support
Hyperscalars provide support in case of
failures
Monitoring
Hyperscalars provide numerous services
for monitoring of cloud resources
Security
Hyperscalars deploy numerous security
measures like MFA, WAF, IAM, etc.
Self Service
No experts required for hardware
software service
Disaster Recovery
Supports disaster recovery
Auto-
updates
Hyperscalars handle
updating
its servers
Connectivity
Users can connect
from anywhere and log
on their servers
Cost
Low installation &
operational cost
Colaboration between
Hyperscalars is possible
Collaboration
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CLOUD PLATFORM FEATURES
01
02
03
04
05
06
07
08
09
10
11
12 Interface, SDK, etc
Cloud platforms provide Console, CLI and
SDK for interacting with the above
services.
Scalable
It allows resources to be scaled as per
business requirement.
Resiliency and Availability
Redunduncy & fault tolerance, Regions
and Zones allow resources to be replicated
in numerous geographies and availability is
ensured at 9 9s percent.
Security
Numerous security measures like WAF,
Cert and Key Managers, etc. are deployed
by the providers.
SaaS, PaaS, IaaS, etc
Cloud Platform provides numerous Service
Models each abstracting the layers of
resources, infrastructure, etc underneath.
Wide Range of Services
Starting from Compute, Storage to Big Data,
AI/ML, etc. hyperscalars provide 200+ services.
Resource Pooling
They provide multi-tenant architectures to
accommodate more users at the same
time.
Easy install maintain update
Service Providers provision the servers,
maintain them and auto-update the resources.
Broad Network Access
In the platforms you can choose from a
good mix of OSs, platforms & devices.
Measured Service
Platforms provide means to calculate
consumption of resources.
Low investment & low
operational cost
Pay-per-use on-demand subscription,
savings plans, spot pricing, etc models are
provided by the Hyperscalars.
Self Service & On Demand
It allows customers to deploy services by
themselves and on-demand.
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TRADITIONAL STORAGE VS CLOUD STORAGE
$16,000,000.00
$8,000,000.00
$0
$2,000,000
$4,000,000
$6,000,000
$8,000,000
$10,000,000
$12,000,000
$14,000,000
$16,000,000
$18,000,000
Traditional Tiered
Storage
Cloud-Optimized
Hybrid Storage
Cost reduction: a rough approximation
Cloud-optimized
Hybrid Storage leads to
50% cost reduction
Annual IT Budget view of Enterprise Storage related Items ($/year)
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PRICING MODELS
FREE
• No commitment
• High flexibility
• No upfront payments
• Easy to work with
• Free
On-Demand
• No commitment
• High flexibility
• No upfront payments
• Easy to work with
• Most expensive option
Spot Instance
• No commitment
• No flexibility
• Can get terminated by AWS
• Very difficult to work with
• Cheapest possible option
Reserved
Instance
• 1 or 3 year commitment
• Low / Moderate flexibility
• Option for upfront
payments
• Difficult to work with
• Cheap
Savings Plan
• 1 or 3 year commitment
• Moderate / High flexibility
• Option for upfront
payments
• Easy to work with
• Cheap
15. 15
CLOUD SERVICE MODELS
On-Premise
IaaS
(Infrastructure as a
Service)
PaaS
(Platform as a
Service)
SaaS
(Software as a
Service)
Applications Applications Applications Applications
Data Data Data Data
Runtime Runtime Runtime Runtime
Middleware Middleware Middleware Middleware
OS OS OS OS
Virtualization Virtualization Virtualization Virtualization
Servers Servers Servers Servers
Storage Storage Storage Storage
Networking Networking Networking Networking
18. 18
WAYS TO INTERACT WITH CLOUD SERVICES
Console
Console allows easy
creation, management
of services
CLI
CLI provides easy way to
create and manage services in
bulk
SDK
Hyperscalars provides
libraries for developing
cloud applications
CloudShell
It’s a command line provided
in browser
23. 23
WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT CLOUD STORAGE SERVICES?
AWS Storage
Gateway
On-premise access to virtually
unlimited cloud storage
Simple Storage
Services
Object Storage Service that
offers scalability, data
availability, security and
performance
AWS File
Server
Easy and cost-effective to
launch and run popular file
systems
AWS Elastic
File system
Provides simple, scalable,
elastic file system for use
with AWS Cloud services
AWS Elastic
Block Storage
It is a block storage solution
specifically designed for
Amazon EC2
Amazon S3
Glacier
Its extremely low-cost
storage service that provides
secure, durable storage for
long-term data archiving
AWS Backup
Provides backup plans, schedule
backups, automate backup
retention, etc
26. 26
WHY S3?
Costly storage sits idle in
data centre
40%
Nearly 40% of storage
purchased is not used
Inactive data is sitting on
costly storage
Up to 95% of data is cold
Data silos duplicate
management, hardware
Documents, images & other
files are growing rapidly
Backup processes slow
storage during the day
Nearly 50% of organizations
need to reduce backup time
Data protection strategies
are incomplete
Almost 40% of them need
security upgrade
Migrations are frequent
costly & lengthy
They need to plan for data
migration every 3 years
95%
Pay for the infrastructure
you use with no upfront
payment
Data reduction technique
and archiving to store
inactive cold data
Easy cloud-based
backup and archiving
solutions
Fast services
with low cost
and risk
Different and more
efficient ways to
backup data
Easy ways to
migrate data
and
applications
50%
40%
27. 27
Storage Class Use Case Characteristics
S3 Standard General purpose storage for frequently accessed data around the globe e.g.
typical enterprise applications
99.99 % availability
Geo-redundant
S3 Intelligent Tiering Automatic cost savings for data with unknown or changing access patterns 99 % availability
S3 Express One Zone High performance storage for your most frequently accessed data 99% availability
Low-cost per GB stored
Data storage in one zone
1 hour minimum storage duration
charge
Fastest Data Processing
S3 Standard 1A Infrequently accessed data that needs millisecond access 99.9% availability
Very low cost per GB
Data fetching cost
Higher per task cost
30-day minimum storage duration
charge
S3 One Zone 1A Re-creatable infrequently accessed data 99% availability
30-day minimum storage duration
charge
Data storage in one zone
S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval Long-lived data that is accessed a few times per year with instant retrievals 99% availability
90-day minimum storage duration
charge
S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval Backup and archive data that is rarely accessed and low cost 99.9% availability
90-day min storage duration charge
S3 Glacier Deep Archive Keeps data that is infrequently accessed, ideal for disaster recovery or archived
data
99.9 % availability
Lowest cost per GB
Data fetching costs
Higher per task cost
180-day min storage duration
charge
Newest Amazon
Storage class
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AMAZON S3 EXPRESS ONE ZONE USE CASES
Interactive Applications Fast Data Hydration Visual Data Rendering
Machine Learning Fast Data Processing Internet of Things (IoT)
29. 29
It gives high throughput and low latency performance
CHOICE OF STORAGE CLASSES ON S3
S3 Standard
Intelligent Tiering
S3 Infrequent
Access
Amazon Glacier
Glacier Deep
Archive
S3 Standard is used for frequently accessed data
It is used for Content Distribution, Big Analytics, Mobile and Gaming applications
Life cycle policy is used to automate the migration process
30. 30
CHOICE OF STORAGE CLASSES ON S3
S3 Infrequent
Access
Amazon Glacier
Glacier Deep
Archive
Intelligent Tiering
S3 Standard
This class moves data to the most cost-effective access tier automatically. It does not
impact performance or cause any operational overhead. It stores data in following two
tiers:
S3 moves the objects to the infrequent access tier if they have not been accessed for
30 consecutive days. If it is accessed again, it is automatically moved back to the
frequent access tier.
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CHOICE OF STORAGE CLASSES ON S3
Amazon Glacier
Glacier Deep
Archive
S3 Infrequent
Access
S3 Standard
Intelligent Tiering
It is applicable at object level as well as bucket level
Used for data that is used less frequently, needs rapid access when needed
Same durability and throughput as S3 Standard
Designed for large objects with minimum object storage
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CHOICE OF STORAGE CLASSES ON S3
S3 Infrequent
Access
Glacier Deep
Archive
Amazon Glacier
S3 Standard
Intelligent Tiering
A large amount of data can be stored
A single unit of archival data can be as large as 40 terabyte
File storage and retrieving option
An economically priced storage service that provides secure, durable, and flexible
storage for data backup and archival
33. 33
It is designed for those usecases where archiving is mandatory
CHOICE OF STORAGE CLASSES ON S3
Amazon Glacier
S3 Infrequent
Access
It can also be used for backup and disaster recovery processes
Certain industries retain data sets for 7-10 yrs or longer to meet regulatory
compliance requirements
Glacier Deep
Archive
S3 Standard
Intelligent Tiering
It is the lowest cost S3 Storage Service that supports long term retention and digital
preservation. It is preferred when data needs to be accessed once or twice a year
36. 36
WHAT IS EFS
05
Designed to grow
elastically to peta-
byte scale
03
It provides File
System access
(consistency) to EC2
instances
01
EFS is a fully
managed file system
designed for
Amazon EC2
instances
02
It displays a file
system interface
that works with
standard OS APIs
04
Sharable across
thousands of
instances
07
Highly available and
durable
06
Built for
performance across
a wide variety of
workloads
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EBS VS EFS
Features Amazon EBS Amazon EFS
Storage File Size Maximum storage size of 16 TB No limitation
File Size No limitation A single file can have maximum 52 TiB
Performance Without stopping an instance, the
volume can be scaled
It supports upto 35,000 file system
operations per second
Data Store Data stored in same AZ and can be
replicated within the AZ
Data is stored in the region and
replicated within the region
Data Access Can be accessed from only one EC2 Accessible from 1-10 EC2 from multi
AZs parallelly
Availability Zone
Failure
Without point-in-time backup, it will
fail
Can survive
Permissions Supports ex3, ext4, and other various
file systems
EFS can be used as NFS for on-prem
servers by Direct Connect
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DIFFERENCE BETWEEN INSTANCE STORE, EBS, S3 & EFS
Instance Store Amazon EBS Amazon S3 Amazon EFS
Accessible only via EC2
instance
Accessible only via EC2
instance
Can be publicly
Accessible
Accessible via several
EC2 instances and AWS
services
No interface File system interface Web interface Web and File system
interface
Block Storage Block Storage Object Storage File Storage
Not detachable from
instance
Hardly Scalable Scalable Scalable
Fastest amongst all Fast, but slower than
Instance store as its
over network
Slowest amongst all Faster than S3, slower
than EBS
Its data lost with
instance terminates
It’s meant to be EC2
drive
Good for storing
backups
Good for sharable
applications and
workloads