Could Your Business Benefit from Amazon S3 Cloud Storage?

Could-Your-Business-Benefit-from-Amazon-S3-Cloud-Storage

Can your business benefit from Amazon S3? The short answer is a resounding yes.

When it comes to running an efficient and successful website, developers and IT teams need reliable and highly-scalable online storage. That’s where Amazon Simple Storage Service, more commonly known as Amazon S3, comes in. Similar to other cloud servers like Dropbox and Google Drive, Amazon S3 is a web service that provides its users with a secure and reliable way to upload and retrieve data from the web using the same dependable, fast, and inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon itself uses. It provides easy storage for your business that assists with web maintenance essentials like backup and recovery, nearline archive, big data analytics, disaster recovery, cloud applications, and content distribution.

What Can You Use S3 For?

Amazon S3 is a powerful approach to storage and file sharing. Its private storage features are perfect for storing and protecting your business’s important, private documents while public storage settings are a helpful tool for website hosting. By default, any uploaded files are set to private, so you can safely and securely store all your business’s essential files. Files can also be switched to public viewing, allowing S3 to host images and documents for your website and providing an alternative for FTP. If you’re looking to share files only with specific people, file permissions can be adjusted to include email addresses of other Amazon Web Service (AWS) customers.

What Are the Benefits of S3?

  1. Low Cost: Amazon S3 has no minimum fees, no set-up costs, and uses a pay-as-you-go system where you only pay for the storage you use. Calculating the price can be a little tricky (it’s divided into components of GBs of storage used and amount of data transferred), but the average domestic user shouldn’t spend more than a few dollars each month. This makes it a much more cost-effective alternative to smaller businesses who might be using Dropbox Pro, which has a flat price.
  2. Unlimited Bandwidth: If images, videos, or applications are eating up your site’s monthly bandwidth limit, then this is the perfect solution. S3 provides unlimited bandwidth to its users, leaving you free to host as many files as you need to your website. Your website will have all of the moving gears you wanted while still running quickly and efficiently.
  3. Better Scalability: Scalability refers to a system’s ability to perform under an increased or expanding workload. When a system scales well, it means that it can continue to perform well even under large operational demands. With S3’s cloud serving and image hosting, your site can function faster. Separating your file hosting from normal HTTP request will ease your server load and optimize performance and stability.
  4. Easier File Retrieval and Sharing: S3 can help your team to work more cohesively through easier file sharing. By storing files online, your team will have the ability to access them from anywhere and from any device, as long as there’s Internet connection. You’ll never have to worry about broken email attachments or misplaced flash drives again.

Amazon S3 Cloud Storage

How Does S3 Work?

S3 stores files within top level folders called “buckets.” Each bucket created must be given a globally unique name that also serves as its URL. To help with this, it’s good practice to begin each bucket’s name with the name of the company or organization that it represents. You cannot change the name of the bucket later, so be sure to name it something relevant and easy to interpret. You will also need to choose a region, which refers to the data center that Amazon will use to store your data. This can be a little tricky. Different regions have slightly different prices, so you’ll want to choose a cheaper region. However, the speed of the server is influenced by your distance from it. For the fastest possible speed, you’ll also want to choose a region that is closest to where your visitors are.

Once your bucket is created, you’ll be able to access it and begin uploading files. These files can then be downloaded by simply right-clicking and opening. Text and PDF files will open in your browser, while others will download. You can also just select the “download” option in the right-click menu. As mentioned previously, all files uploaded are hosted privately. To share the file or host it publicly, you will need to right click on the file, go into its properties, and adjust its permission settings.

Need Help Getting Set Up?

While Amazon S3 is an effective and useful tool for any business, the process for getting it organized and set up can seem daunting. The team at Evolution Brands can help make sure that you’re getting the most out of S3 and correctly utilizing it for all of your web hosting and file storing or sharing needs.

If you’re interested in learning more about Amazon S3 and how it can better assist your business, call 239.789.1992 or email info@evobr.com.