AWS Expands Storage Portfolio, Releases Low-Cost Option

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is expanding its storage portfolio for enterprises that don’t have high-volume critical workloads, introducing a low-cost alternative.

The new Amazon Elastic File System (EFS) One Zone storage has the ability to lower down storage costs by 47 percent as compared to the existing storage products. The EFS delivers the same features but with limitations on the file storage options and availability.

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One Zone stores redundant files in a single Availability Zone (AZ), which is perfect for companies who are looking to have cost-optimized file storage. Unlike the regular storage classes, this new one doesn’t store redundant data across multiple geographically separated AZs.

AWS Expands Storage Portfolio

For that reason, the One Zone is more cost-friendly, with no minimum commitments or upfront fees needed. Amazon is quoting three nines availability under two new file storage classes, known as the One Zone and the One Zone Infrequent Access.

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Fully Managed File System

Traditionally, the Amazon EFS stores data across multiple geographically separated AZs to benefit businesses that need access to important applications or files. The precedented EFS offers the highest level of availability for business-critical tools like Oracle and SAP.

The problem surfaces when some enterprises don’t require multi AZ availability. These companies end up paying more without maximizing the use of the storage class. For this, AWS created a different file system that works for customers choosing to deploy self-managed file systems.

With the new EFS, customers can enjoy more straightforward and serverless storage that’s run in a single AZ and with a price of $0.043 GB per month. While it’s cheaper, the Amazon EFS delivers the same scalability benefits as the standard infrequent access features like lifecycle management and integration to the compute services.

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“When we set out to build Amazon EFS, we designed it with multi-Availability Zone redundancy to deliver the highest levels of durability and availability. We’ve also heard customers that they’d like a lower cost file storage option for workloads that have lower resiliency requirements,” said Vice President for data services Wayne Duso.

The EFS is ideal for developer workloads including the staging environments and applications linked to analytics, simulation, and media transcoding. These things usually require lower levels of availability for AZ, relying heavily on residing data on-premises.

In addition to cheaper cost, the EFS comes with a Lifecycle Management policy of 30 days to move used files to the infrequent access storage class, delivering 92 percent additional savings.

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