Mastering AWS Storage Services: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Cloud Practitioner Exam Success!

Syed Zoheb
4 min readJul 12, 2023

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Introduction:

Welcome back, Cloud Innovators! If you’ve already embarked on the thrilling journey through AWS Container Services, get ready to dive even deeper into the realm of AWS Storage Services. In this captivating continuation of our “Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Cloud Practitioner Exam” series, we unlock the potential of AWS Backup, Amazon EBS, Amazon EFS, Amazon S3, Amazon S3 Glacier, AWS Snowball Edge, and AWS Storage Gateway. Brace yourself for a storage revolution that will propel your exam preparation to new heights!

Storage Services:

AWS Backup:

  • AWS Backup is a fully managed backup service that simplifies the process of backing up and restoring your data across AWS services.
  • It provides a centralised console to manage backup policies, schedules, and retention periods.
  • Backup supports various AWS services, including Amazon EBS, Amazon RDS, Amazon DynamoDB, and more.

Example Scenario: Imagine you run a company with critical data stored in various AWS resources. With AWS Backup, you can create backup policies to automatically schedule and manage backups for your Amazon EBS volumes and databases. This ensures data resiliency, simplifies disaster recovery, and gives you peace of mind.

Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS):

  • Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) is a block-level storage service that provides persistent storage volumes for use with EC2 instances.
  • It allows you to create, attach, and detach volumes, and provides features such as snapshotting and encryption.
  • EBS volumes are highly available and durable, offering consistent and low-latency performance for your applications.

Example Scenario: Suppose you’re running a web application on Amazon EC2 instances. With Amazon EBS, you can create and attach storage volumes to your instances to store critical application data and databases. This ensures that your data remains intact and available, even if the underlying EC2 instance is replaced or scaled.

Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS):

  • Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) is a scalable and fully managed file storage service for EC2 instances.
  • It provides shared file storage for Linux-based workloads and supports multiple EC2 instances concurrently.
  • EFS offers high throughput and low-latency access to files and automatically scales storage capacity based on your needs.

Example Scenario: Imagine you work in a team of developers collaborating on a project. With Amazon EFS, you can create a shared file system to store and access project files, code, and other shared resources. This allows your team members to work on the same files simultaneously, enhancing productivity and collaboration.

Amazon S3:

  • Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is a scalable object storage service that offers industry-leading durability, availability, and performance.
  • It allows you to store and retrieve any amount of data from anywhere on the web.
  • S3 is commonly used for backup and restore, data archiving, content distribution, and data lake solutions.

Example Scenario: Suppose you’re a content creator with a large library of media files. With Amazon S3, you can store your videos, images, and other content securely in the cloud. You can then serve this content directly to your users through a website or distribute it to different platforms, ensuring efficient content delivery.

Amazon S3 Glacier:

  • Amazon S3 Glacier is a secure and durable storage service for long-term data archiving and backup.
  • It is designed for infrequently accessed data that requires long-term retention.
  • Glacier offers low-cost storage options and provides features for data retrieval and lifecycle management.

Example Scenario: Let’s say you work for a financial institution that needs to comply with data retention regulations. With Amazon S3 Glacier, you can securely store and archive sensitive financial data for the required duration. You can define retrieval policies to access the data when needed, ensuring compliance and data integrity.

AWS Snowball Edge:

  • AWS Snowball Edge is a data transfer and edge computing device that helps you migrate large amounts of data into and out of AWS.
  • It provides secure data transfer with built-in encryption and offers compute capabilities for running edge applications in offline environments.
  • Snowball Edge helps overcome bandwidth limitations and simplify the data migration process.

Example Scenario: Imagine you’re a geologist collecting terabytes of geological data from remote locations. With AWS Snowball Edge, you can store and process this data on-site using the built-in compute capabilities. Once completed, you can ship the Snowball Edge device back to AWS, where the data is securely transferred to the cloud for further analysis.

AWS Storage Gateway:

  • AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid storage service that enables on-premises applications to seamlessly access AWS cloud storage.
  • It provides a bridge between on-premises environments and AWS storage services such as S3, EBS, and Glacier.
  • Storage Gateway offers different deployment options, including file gateway, volume gateway, and tape gateway, to meet various storage requirements.

Example Scenario: Suppose you have a legacy application running on-premises that requires access to data stored in Amazon S3. With AWS Storage Gateway, you can create a gateway that connects your on-premises environment to S3. This enables your application to access and retrieve data from S3, seamlessly bridging the gap between your on-premises infrastructure and the cloud.

Conclusion:

AWS Storage Services offer a plethora of options to store, protect, and manage your data in the cloud. By understanding the capabilities and use cases of these services, you can make informed decisions to optimise your data storage strategy.

Remember, hands-on experience and further exploration of these services are key to mastering AWS storage. Supplement this cheat sheet with in-depth study materials, practical exercises, and real-world experimentation to maximise your learning and achieve storage excellence in the AWS Cloud.

Checkout the next part of the series — Mastering AWS Database Services: The Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Cloud Practitioner Exam Success!

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Syed Zoheb

Cloud tech & productivity enthusiast sharing tips & insights to help you streamline work & life. Join me as we explore the future of work in the digital age.