Amazon Glacier is the new service that offers extremely cheap archival data storage and backup services in the AWS cloud starting at $0.01 per GB, which is equivalent to $1 for 100GB of archival storage per month! It enters as a strong competitor in the data backup space, with very cheap rates and reliable branding which will attract organizations for sure.
A lot of organizations download sensitive critical data on a regular basis for archival purposes. This data requires huge storage and long-term data security. It is essential to store this data securely, and yet there is a need for it to be cost-effective.
Amazon Glacier: Cheapest Data Storage
Amazon Glacier addresses this need for organizations to back up data regularly in this super cheap data storage and archival service. They can take advantage of Amazon’s operational efficiency, and reduce dependence on backup tape libraries. Note the stress here is more on secure data storage, rather than data retrieval.
The highlight of this service is that there are no upfront payments. Amazon Glacier will only charge for the data storage that you actually use. Data retrieval is only up to a limited extent, and if you need more than of course the service might not be the right one for you.
Organizations can easily scale up or scale down their data storage facilities whenever they require, as there are no limits to data storage. Amazon will store your data across multiple facilities and will encrypt all data for added security.
Check this video for more information.
Amazon Glacier vs Amazon S3
We have been using Amazon S3 simple storage service for file storage of our website for quite some time and combining it with Amazon CloudFront, to create an effective content delivery network (CDN) service. So how does Amazon Glacier differ from Amazon S3?
While Amazon S3 will immediately deliver your files, and even source Amazon cloud front for CDN services, Amazon Glacier will queue these files for download over the next few hours. Also note that Amazon Glacier will allow you to download only 5% of your average monthly storage, pro-rated daily, for free each month. If you decide to download more than that, you will be charged at $0.01 per Gigabyte!
You can start using Glacier today in the US-East (N. Virginia), US-West (N. California), US-West (Oregon), Asia Pacific (Tokyo) and EU-West (Ireland) Regions.