Understanding AWS S3 Storage

What is Amazon S3?

S3 (Simple Storage Service) is AWS's object storage — store and retrieve any amount of files (images, backups, videos) with high durability (99.999999999%).

Key Concepts

Term	Meaning
Bucket	A container for files
Object	A file + metadata
Key	The file's unique name/path

Using S3 (CLI)

aws s3 mb s3://my-bucket          # make bucket
aws s3 cp file.jpg s3://my-bucket # upload
aws s3 ls s3://my-bucket          # list
aws s3 sync ./folder s3://my-bucket # sync

Storage Classes

Class	Use
Standard	Frequent access
Infrequent Access	Backups
Glacier	Archives (cheapest)

Common Uses

• Host static websites.
• Store user uploads.
• Backups & data lakes.
• Serve images/videos via CDN.

FAQs

Is S3 a file system?

No — it's object storage (flat, key-based), not a traditional hierarchy. More in our AWS guides.

How do I make files public?

Via bucket policies — but be careful with sensitive data.