What is Amazon S3 Glacier?
Amazon S3 Glacier is a family of archive storage classes within Amazon S3, optimized for infrequently accessed data with long retention periods. Glacier offers the lowest storage costs in AWS while maintaining 11 nines durability (99.999999999%). The three Glacier storage classes differ in cost and retrieval times.
Glacier is fully integrated into S3. You manage Glacier data like regular S3 objects and use the same APIs, lifecycle policies, and management tools. Data can be automatically tiered from S3 Standard to Glacier to optimize costs.
Core Features
- Three Retrieval Options: Instant Retrieval, Flexible Retrieval, and Deep Archive
- S3 Object Lock: WORM storage for compliance requirements
- Vault Lock: Immutable compliance policies
- 11 Nines Durability: 99.999999999% data durability
- Lifecycle Integration: Automatic tiering from S3 Standard
Typical Use Cases
Compliance Archives
Regulatory requirements often require data retention for years or decades. S3 Glacier with Object Lock enables WORM storage that cannot be bypassed even with root access. Ideal for financial services, healthcare, and public administration.
Backup and Disaster Recovery
Store backups long term at minimal costs. Glacier Flexible Retrieval offers free bulk retrievals for disaster recovery scenarios. Cross Region Replication secures data geographically.
Digital Preservation
Media companies, archives, and libraries use Glacier Deep Archive for cost effective long term retention of digital assets. At less than 1 Euro per TB per month, it is cheaper than tape storage with higher reliability.
Advantages
- Lowest storage costs in AWS
- 11 nines durability like S3 Standard
- WORM storage for compliance
- Seamless S3 integration with lifecycle policies
Integration with innFactory
As an AWS Reseller, innFactory supports you with Amazon S3 Glacier: archiving strategies, lifecycle policy design, Object Lock configuration for compliance, and cost optimized storage tier selection.
Available Tiers & Options
Glacier Instant Retrieval
- Millisecond access
- Low cost for quarterly access
- Higher cost than Flexible Retrieval
Glacier Flexible Retrieval
- Free bulk retrieval
- Retrieval in minutes to hours
- No immediate availability
Glacier Deep Archive
- Lowest storage costs
- Ideal for compliance archives
- 12-48 hours retrieval time
Typical Use Cases
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Amazon S3 Glacier?
Amazon S3 Glacier is a family of archive storage classes within S3, optimized for infrequently accessed data with long retention periods. It offers the lowest storage costs in AWS with 11 nines durability.
Which Glacier Storage Class should I choose?
Glacier Instant Retrieval for data with quarterly access requiring millisecond latency. Glacier Flexible Retrieval for archives with retrieval in minutes to hours and free bulk retrievals. Glacier Deep Archive for lowest costs with 12 to 48 hour retrieval time.
How does S3 Object Lock work?
S3 Object Lock enables WORM storage for compliance requirements. Objects can be protected from deletion and overwriting for a defined period or indefinitely. Two modes: Governance (bypassable with special permissions) and Compliance (not bypassable, even by root).
How long does data retrieval take?
Glacier Instant Retrieval: milliseconds. Glacier Flexible Retrieval: Expedited (1-5 minutes), Standard (3-5 hours), Bulk (5-12 hours, free). Glacier Deep Archive: Standard (12 hours), Bulk (48 hours).