Feature/Service Amazon EBS Amazon S3 Amazon S3 Glacier Amazon EFS

Object storage: Stores data as objects within buckets,

Block storage: Stores data in fixed-sized blocks, Archival object storage: Stores data as archives Network file system: Provides a scalable,
Storage Type best for unstructured data like images, logs, and
optimized for low-latency workloads. in vaults for low-cost, long-term storage. shared file system accessed via NFS protocols.
backups.

Persistent storage for EC2 instances, boot volumes, General-purpose storage for frequently accessed data, Long-term archival storage for rarely accessed Shared storage for multiple EC2 instances like
Use Case databases, enterprise apps, and throughput- including backups, disaster recovery, and static data, regulatory compliance, and digital big data, media processing, web serving, and
intensive workloads. website hosting. (e.g., websites, apps) preservation. home directories.

Expedited: 1–5 minutes; Standard: 3–5 hours;

Access Speed Low-latency Access Milliseconds latency for GET, PUT, and LIST requests. Low-latency file system access.
Bulk: 5–12 hours.

Manual resizing of volumes, up to 16 TiB per Virtually unlimited storage; single archives up to Automatically scales from GB to PB; thousands of
Scalability Virtually unlimited storage; single objects up to 5 TB.
volume. Elastic resizing without downtime. 40 TB. EC2 instances can access concurrently.

Replicated within a single Availability Zone for high Designed for 11 9s durability; redundantly stored Designed for 11 9s durability; replicated across
Durability High durability with multi-AZ access.
availability and durability. across multiple facilities in a Region. multiple AZs.

Storage pricing varies by class (e.g., Standard, Low storage cost; retrievals charged per GB and
Pay for provisioned storage size (GB per month), Pay for only the storage used; elastic scaling
Pricing Standard-IA, Intelligent-Tiering); free inbound data request, with expedited retrieval incurring the
IOPS, and snapshots (charged per GB-month in S3). helps reduce costs.
transfer. highest cost.

Data encrypted in transit and at rest; supports Server-side encryption options: SSE-S3, SSE-KMS, SSE- Data encrypted by default (AES-256); vault lock Encryption at rest supported; encrypted during
Encryption
customer-managed encryption keys. C; encrypted during transit via HTTPS. ensures compliance. transit using NFS 4.1’sp TLS feature.

Management AWS Management Console, CLI, SDK, RESTful API, or AWS CLI, SDKs (e.g., Java, .NET), APIs; limited
AWS Management Console, CLI, SDK, and APIs. AWS Management Console, CLI, and SDK.
Interface third-party tools. management via console.

Storage classes for cost optimization, event Shared file system accessible across multiple EC2
Snapshots, elastic resizing, supports SSD and HDD Vault lock for compliance policies, lifecycle
Unique Features notifications, lifecycle policies, fine-grained access instances, seamless scaling, compatible with
volumes. policies for archival, three retrieval options.
control. Linux-based AMIs.

Limited to single-AZ access, manual resizing

Higher cost for frequently accessed data compared to Retrieval delays, primarily accessible via APIs Primarily suited for Linux-based EC2 instances,
Limitations required, higher cost compared to Glacier for long-
Glacier, limited to object sizes of 5 TB maximum. and CLI, no immediate access to stored data. does not scale automatically across Regions.
term storage.