Basic Information
| Field | Details |
|---|---|
| English name | Amazon S3 |
| Full name | Amazon Simple Storage Service |
| Chinese description | 对象存储 |
| Japanese description | オブジェクトストレージ |
| Exam frequency | ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ |
| Often confused with | EBS / EFS / S3 on Outposts |
In one sentence
S3 is AWS object storage: buckets are management boundaries, objects hold data and metadata, and keys uniquely identify objects inside a bucket.
Core purpose
- An object can be up to 5 TB; uploads larger than 5 GB must use multipart upload.
- Buckets and objects are private by default. IAM, bucket policies, Block Public Access, presigned URLs, and encryption control access.
- Versioning protects history, Lifecycle manages transitions and expiration, while replication and Object Lock add protection.
Exam focus
- Choose S3 for objects, static assets, logs, backups, and data lakes.
- Select Standard, IA, Glacier, or Intelligent-Tiering from access frequency, retrieval time, and total cost.
- CloudFront with a private S3 origin is a common secure distribution pattern.
Common misconceptions
- Slashes in a key only create a prefix-like view; S3 is not a POSIX file system.
- Versioning retains billable historical versions and is not a free backup.
Key takeaway
Bucket holds objects; keys locate them; policies control access; Versioning protects history; Lifecycle controls cost.
Related services
CloudFront, IAM, KMS, CloudTrail, AWS Backup.