AWS CCP Exam Prep: Understanding AWS Billing, Pricing and Support - Part 2

Welcome to part 2 of my AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner exam prep series. This post continues where Part 1 left off, taking a CCP exam-level look at AWS Billing, Pricing and Support. In part 1, I covered AWS pricing models. In part 2, I am covering storage options and tiers.

All examples here use us-east-2 unless otherwise noted.

This post focuses on AWS CCP Exam Task Statement 4.1: Compare AWS pricing models.

My last practice test results after writing part 1 and before writing part 2:

• 70% required to pass.
• My Score: 87%
• 57 out of 65 questions correct.
• Result: Passed.

Please note that, while writing part 1 definitely contributed to the improvement in my score, I have been studying in other ways as well.

The first Task Statement under the content domain is Task Statement 4.1: Compare AWS Pricing models ​.

The second item listed under the Compare AWS pricing models task is “Storage options and tiers”. Let’s take a look at each one by one to develop exam-level readiness for this subject.

There are three main categories of storage in AWS: object storage (S3), block storage (EBS) and file storage (EFS and FSx). There are also storage options for hybrid and offline storage, which will also need to be understood for the exam.

S3 stands for Simple Storage Service. The AWS S3 page defines S3 as "…an object storage service offering industry-leading scalability, data availability, security, and performance." While the correct name of the service is AWS S3, it is more commonly referred to as just S3.

S3 is highly durable and scalable.

S3 is fully elastic, and will automatically grow and shrink as you add and remove data. There is no limit to how much data can be stored in S3.

Amazon achieves this level of durability by redundantly storing objects on multiple devices across a minimum of three Availability Zones in an AWS Region.

S3 is secure and private by default. However, S3 buckets can be made publicly accessible if needed.

On January 5, 2023, Amazon started encrypting all new objects stored in S3 by default. However, what may not have been updated on the exam yet, is that S3 objects were not encrypted by default prior to this date. The default encryption is now server-side encryption (SSE-S3). Also prior to this date, the two encryption configuration options that could be optionally specified were server-side encryption (SSE-S3) or AWS Key Management Service Keys (SSE-KMS).

There are several S3 storage tiers available to choose from. Which one is best depends on customer needs, and the different tiering options will need to be understood for the exam.

S3 Storage Tiers

• S3 Standard

  • A general purpose tier for frequently accessed data.
  • Provides low latency and high throughput performance.
  • Designed to deliver 99.99% availability with an SLA of 99.99%.

• S3 Intelligent-Tiering

  • Best when access is unknown or changing.
  • Automatically moves data to the most cost-effective access tier based on access frequency, without performance impact, retrieval fees or operational overhead.
  • Includes Frequent Access tier, Infrequent Access tier, Archive Instant Access tier, and Archive Access tier.
  • Designed to have the same availability as standard for the Frequent and Infrequent tiers.

• S3 Standard-Infrequent Access (S3 Standard-IA)

  • For data that is accessed less frequently, but requires rapid access when needed.
  • Same high durability as S3 Standard.
  • Low per GB storage price and per GB retrieval charge.

• S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access (S3 One Zone-IA)

  • For data that is accessed less frequently, but requires rapid access when needed.
  • Stores data in one Availability Zone.
  • Costs 20% less than S3 Standard-IA.
  • Because data is stored in a single AZ, S3 One Zone-IA is best suited for data that can be easily recovered or regenerated if lost.

• S3 Express One Zone (Released on November 28, 2023)

  • A high-performance, single-Availability Zone storage class.
  • Delivers the fastest data access for frequently accessed data and latency-sensitive applications.
  • Because data is stored in a single AZ, S3 Express One Zone is best suited for data that can be easily recovered or regenerated if lost.

• S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval

  • Archive storage.
  • Lowest cost for long-lived data when millisecond retrieval is still required.
  • Delivers the fastest access to S3 archive storage.

• S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (Formerly S3 Glacier)

  • For archive data that is accessed approximately 1 to 2 times per year and is retrieved asynchronously.
  • For data that does not require immediate access, but needs the flexibility to retrieve larger sets of data at no cost.
  • Well suited for backup or disaster recovery use cases.

• S3 Glacier Deep Archive

  • Lowest-cost storage class.
  • Supports long-term retention and digital preservation for data that may be accessed once or twice a year.
  • Designed for customers that retain data sets for 7-10 years or longer to meet regulatory requirements.
  • Also well suited for backup and recovery use cases.
  • Replicated and stored across multiple geographically-dispersed facilities within a region.

• S3 on Outposts

  • Delivers object storage to your on-premises AWS Outposts environment.
  • Uses a single S3 storage class named S3 Outposts, or sometimes just ‘OUTPOSTS’.
  • Ideal for workloads with local data residency requirements.
  • Can satisfy demanding performance needs by keeping data close to on-premises applications.
  • Supports the AWS S3 SDK and encryption.
  • Supports IAM and S3 Access Points for authentication and authorization.

AWS Elastic Block Store (EBS)

• Allows you to create and attach storage to EC2 instances.
• Can use SSD-backed storage or HDD-backed storage.
• Like a blank hard disk - the file system must be created after storage is attached.
• Placed in a specific Availability Zone and then replicated within that Availability Zone.

AWS Instance Store

• Temporary block-level storage for an EC2 instance.
• Uses disks physically attached to the EC2 instance.
• For temporary storage of information that changes frequently.

AWS Elastic File Store (EFS)

• Serverless, fully elastic file storage.
• Uses NFS (Network File System).
• Offers Regional and One Zone types.
• Can grow to petabyte scale.
• Allows massively parallel access from compute instances.

Finally, I’m going to mention AWS FSx for Windows. Without going into too much detail, FSx for Windows is the file system that is required to run applications that depend on a Windows file system. It’s actually part of a larger FSx family of products, but compatibility with Windows is the most important point to remember for the exam.

That brings me to the end of my notes for part 2. In part 3 of the series, I’ll begin looking at billing, budget and cost management. The next section will cover my weakest area of knowledge for both AWS in general and for CCP exam prep. I’ll be taking another practice test after publishing this post and will again post my updated score in part 3. If you’re reading this as study prep for the AWS CCP exam, I hope you found the information helpful and best of luck on the exam!