Amazon S3

Amazon S3 is a service that provides internet storage to complement developers and newer web-based businesses. Standing for "Simple Storage Service," Amazon promotes S3 as a cost effective method of attaining online infrastructure without renting servers or buying hard drive space. The storage system utilizes the same systems that facilitate Amazon's own websites, allowing users to store and access data as if it were kept on their own hardware. ¹

Fast Facts

1. Service launched March 14, 2006²
2. U.S. pricing: $0.15/GB-month storage used³
3. European Pricing: $0.18/GB-month⁴
4. Amazon guarantees 99.99% uptime⁵
5. Uses REST and SOAP for simple interfacing.
6. Store files in sets as large as 5GB
7. Users only pay for the data and bandwidth they use

The Crash

On February 15, 2008, Amazon S3 suffered a large crash that crippled many of the websites that rely upon its infrastructure.⁶ Web businesses like Smugmug and Twitter rely on S3 for storage and found the service unresponsive.⁷ Amazon explained the outage, which lasted about two and a half hours, as the result of too many authentication requests coming into one of their data centers.⁶

Related Pages on Mahalo

Amazon | Kindle | Amazon Digital Text Platform | Amazon Kindle Reviews | Amazon Kindle Store | Amazon Whispernet | Amazon SimpleDB | Alexa.com | Alexa Toolbar | Jeff Bezos | Google

Categories