Types of Storage

S3:

Amazon S3 is a Simple Storage Service.

To understand how S3 stores the data or what type of storage is S3, first of all we need to know what are different storage types.

Block Storage:

Let’s understand with some analogy. For suppose, you bought a piece of land, we can divide it as per our own convenience, on this land, I am going to create garden. I will have open space and parking for my cars. We are the owner of that land. We can perform customization as per your need. Legally whatever is allowed, I can divide my piece of land into different usage & keep on utilizing it, that is what block storage is.

Best example for block storage is your local hard disk. When you have local hard disk on your laptop, if we want, we can partition it, format it, we can install different operating system on top of it. It is our hard disk, we can decide how we want to use it. That is called block storage, a storage which I can partition, format.

File Storage:

Let’s say you are in appartment. You have given a fixed area, we can make some modifications in the appartment but you cannot break the wall and modify something. It would be interfering with someone else in your neighbour side, it’s not allowed. There is a storage which you can use but we cannot perform things like partitioning or formatting.

Object Storage:

Suppose I’m working in Hyderabad, I am relocating to Bangalore. When I’m relocating, there is lot of stuff to bring with me, I don’t have space. I packaged all my stuff into boxes rented a unit like the below in Hyderabad. This unit is a storage unit, this has a lock-in key, I would be storing my data, I will be putting my stuff into the boxes, I have lock & key mechanism on top of it.

That unit is only designed to store stuff, it is not designed for humans to live. It does not have light, cooling or power. It is the storage place where we can keep our stuff, when I’m back to Hyderabad, I have taken all my stuff. I paid only for 2 months of storage capacity. You can only pay per box, not even the whole unit. That is object storage.