S3 Partitioning, Storage Classes and Efficient Querying

• S3 offers various functionalities like partitioning, different storage classes, lifecycle rules, and versioning.

Importance of Partitioning

• Simplifies data management tasks, including data retention and archiving.
• Improves query performance by enabling queries to process only relevant data subsets.
• Reduces the amount of data scanned in queries, leading to cost savings.

Implementation of Partitioning

• Involves organizing data into folders and subfolders, and using buckets.
• Glue crawlers can be used to automatically create partition keys.

Efficient Querying

• Focuses on specific criteria through partitioning for more efficient querying.
• Data should be partitioned according to how it is typically filtered or aggregated.

S3 Storage Classes

• S3 Standard is for general-purpose, frequently accessed data.
• S3 Standard - Infrequent Access is for long-lived but infrequently accessed data, requiring millisecond access.
• S3 One Zone - Infrequent Access suits re-creatable, infrequently accessed data that requires millisecond access.
• S3 Intelligent-Tiering offers automatic cost savings for data with unknown or changing access patterns.
• Archive Access and Deep Archive Access Tiers within Intelligent-Tiering move rarely accessed objects to cost-effective storage options for long-term, low-frequency data storage.
• S3 Express One Zone provides high-performance storage for frequently accessed data.

S3 Glacier

• Instant Retrieval is suited for data accessed once a quarter, with retrieval in milliseconds.
• Flexible Retrieval is used for long-term backups and archives, with retrieval times from 1 minute to 12 hours.
• Deep Archive is for long-term data archiving, accessed once or twice a year, and can be restored within 12 hours.
• S3 Intelligent Tiering includes asynchronous archive access tiers.

Lifecycle Rules

• Lifecycle rules define actions that S3 applies to a group of objects
• Transition actions involve moving objects to different storage classes.
• Expiration actions involve deleting objects after a specified time.

S3 Versioning

• Manages file changes by keeping multiple versions.
• Allows reverting to previous states in case of accidental deletion or unwanted modifications.

Benefits of S3 Versioning

• Data can be restored to specific points in time.
• Ensures data integrity and consistency over time.
• Meets regulatory requirements for tracking changes in industries like finance and healthcare.

Working Mechanism of S3 Versioning

• New versions are created whenever a file or document is changed.
• Each version is identified with a unique version number or code.
• Versions are immutable and cannot be changed.

Challenges of S3 Versioning

• Storage needs increase, especially in data lakes.
• Saving entire files as new versions, rather than using incremental versioning, which raises storage costs.
• Managing multiple versions can be complex.

Balancing Act of S3 Versioning

• Requires balancing the benefits of versioning with additional storage costs.
• Data lifecycle policies help define retention periods for previous versions.

Implementation in AWS S3

• Keeps multiple versions of an object, allowing reversion to previous versions.

Building a Strategy for S3 Versioning

• Versioning is not necessary for all data.
• Enable versioning for critical or sensitive datasets.
• Consider data criticality, additional storage costs, and regulatory requirements when deciding whether to implement versioning.

Explore S3 functionalities including partitioning to simplify data management and improve query performance. Learn about different storage classes like S3 Standard and S3 Standard-IA for cost-effective data storage. Understand how to efficiently query data by focusing on specific criteria through partitioning.