Cost-optimized storage

Store each piece of data in the cheapest tier that still meets its access and recovery needs, move it automatically as it ages, delete what policy no longer requires, and measure where the money goes.

Amazon S3 storage classes

• S3 Standard: Frequently accessed data. No retrieval fee and no minimum storage duration.
• S3 Intelligent-Tiering: Moves each object between access tiers based on its use, for a small monitoring fee and no retrieval fees. Best when access patterns are unknown or change.
• S3 Standard-IA: Infrequently accessed data that still needs millisecond access. Lower storage price, a per-GB retrieval fee, and a 30-day minimum.
• S3 One Zone-IA: Like Standard-IA but in one AZ, for data you can re-create.
• S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval: Archive data accessed about once a quarter, still with millisecond access. 90-day minimum.
• S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval: Archives retrieved in minutes to hours, with free bulk retrievals. 90-day minimum.
• S3 Glacier Deep Archive: The lowest-cost storage, for data kept for years and restored within about 12 to 48 hours. 180-day minimum.

Lifecycle and access options

• Lifecycle rules: Transition objects to cheaper classes as they age, expire them when retention ends, delete old noncurrent versions, and abort incomplete multipart uploads.
• S3 Storage Lens and Storage Class Analysis: Show usage and access patterns so you can pick lifecycle rules from evidence.
• Requester Pays: The requester, not the bucket owner, pays request and data transfer costs. Useful when sharing large data sets.
• Request charges add up with millions of tiny objects: batch small records into larger objects before uploading or archiving them.

Block and file storage costs

• Move gp2 volumes to gp3: a lower price per GB, and performance you set separately from size.
• Use st1 or sc1 HDD volumes for large sequential or cold data instead of SSD.
• Right-size volumes and delete unattached volumes and old snapshots. Amazon Data Lifecycle Manager or AWS Backup automates snapshot creation and deletion; the EBS Snapshots Archive tier is cheaper for snapshots kept a long time.
• EFS lifecycle management moves files that haven't been read to the Infrequent Access and Archive storage classes; EFS One Zone costs less when multi-AZ isn't needed.
• Storage that grows on its own (S3, EFS, RDS storage autoscaling) avoids paying for capacity provisioned "just in case".

Backup, archive, and migration

• AWS Backup plans can move backups to cold storage and delete them at the end of the retention period.
• Tape Gateway replaces physical tapes with virtual tapes archived in S3 Glacier storage classes.
• Data transfer into AWS from the internet is free. For bulk or scheduled moves, DataSync is cheaper in effort than custom scripts; for ongoing hybrid access, use Storage Gateway; for partner file drops, use Transfer Family.

Cost visibility and control

• AWS Cost Explorer: Charts past costs and usage, forecasts spend, and recommends Savings Plans and Reserved Instances.
• AWS Budgets: Alerts, or automatic actions, when actual or forecasted cost or usage crosses a threshold.
• AWS Cost and Usage Report: The most detailed billing data, line by line, delivered to S3 for analysis with Athena or Quick Sight.
• Cost allocation tags: Activate tags such as project or team in the billing console to break costs down by them.
• Consolidated billing: AWS Organizations combines usage across accounts, so volume pricing tiers and discounts apply to the total.