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In Reducing Your Website's Bandwidth Usage, I concluded that my best outsourced image hosting option was Amazon's S3 or Simple Storage Service.
S3 is a popular choice for startups. For example, SmugMug uses S3 as their primary data storage source. There have been a few minor S3-related bumps at SmugMug, but overall the prognosis appears to be good. After experimenting with S3 myself, I'm sold. The costs are reasonable:
- No start up fees, no minimum charge
- $0.15 per GB for each month of storage
- $0.20 per GB of data transferred
It's not exactly unlimited bandwidth, but I was planning to spend $2 a month on image hosting anyway. That buys me 10 GB per month of highly reliable, pure file transfer bandwidth through S3. Beyond that, it's straight pay-as-you-go.
Unfortunately, Amazon doesn't provide a GUI or command-line application for easily transferring files to S3; it's only a set of SOAP and REST APIs.
There is Jungle Disk, which allows S3 to show up as a virtual drive on your computer, but Jungle Disk offers no way to make files accessible through public HTTP. And as I found out later, Jungle Disk also uses a strange, proprietary file naming and storage structure on S3 when you view it directly. Jungle Disk is a fine backup and offline storage tool (particularly considering how cheap S3 disk storage costs are), but it doesn't offer the level of control that I need.
Amazon does provide a number of API code samples in various languages, along with some links to tutorial articles, but beyond that, you're basically on your own. Or so I thought.
That was before I found the S3Fox Organizer for FireFox.
Amazon S3 is a data storage service that can be used to store and retrieve data for a variety of use cases, such as static data used in a web page or mobile app, redundancy and storage for internal. Amazon S3 Storage Lens requires a configuration that contains the properties that are used to aggregate metrics on your behalf for a single dashboard or export. This includes all or partial sections of your organization account's storage, including filtering by Region, bucket, and prefix-level (available only with advanced metrics) scope.
S3Fox is like a dream come true after futzing around with the S3 API. Using S3Fox, I can easily experiment with the S3 service to figure out how it works instead of spending my time struggling with arcane S3 API calls in a development environment. It's a shame Amazon doesn't offer a tool like this to help people understand what the S3 service is and how it works.
At any rate, my goal is to use S3 as an image hosting service. I started by uploading an entire folder of images with S3Fox. I had a few problems where S3Fox would mysteriously fail in the middle of a transfer, forcing me to exit all the way out of Firefox. Fortunately, S3Fox also has folder synchronization support, so I simply restarted the entire transfer and told it to skip all files that were already present in S3. After a few restarts, all the files were successfully uploaded. I then granted anonymous access to the entire folder and all of its contents. This effectively exposed all the uploaded images through the public S3 site URL:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/
All S3 content has to go in what Amazon calls a 'Bucket'. Bucket names must be globally unique, and you can only create a maximum of 100 Buckets per account. It's easy to see why when you form the next part of the URL:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/codinghorrorimg/
Each Bucket can hold an unlimited number of 'Objects' of essentially unlimited size, with as much arbitrary key-value pair metadata as you want attached. Objects default to private access, but they have explicit access control lists (for Amazon accounts only), and you can make them public. Once we've added an Object, if we grant public read permission to it, we can then access it via the complete site / Bucket / Object URL:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/codinghorrorimg/codinghorror-bandwidth-usage.png
There's no concept of folders in S3. You can only emulate folder structures by adding Objects with tricky names like subfolder/myfile.txt. And you can't rename Buckets or Objects, as far as I can tell. But at least I can control the exact filenames, which I was unable to do with any other image hosting service.
In my testing I ended up uploading the entire contents of my /images folder twice. That cost me a whopping two cents according to my real-time S3 account statement:
It's almost like micropayments in action.
S3 will probably end up costing me slightly more than the 'Unlimited' $25/year accounts available on popular personal photo sharing sites. With S3, there's no illusion of unlimited bandwidth use unconstrained by cost. And personal photo and image sharing sites are often blocked by corporate networks, which makes sense if you consider their intended purpose: informally sharing personal photos. S3 is a more professional image hosting choice; it offers tighter control along with a full set of developer APIs.
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is storage for the internet. You can use Amazon S3 to store and retrieve any amount of data at any time, from anywhere on the web. You can accomplish these tasks using the AWS Management Console, which is a simple and intuitive web interface.
To get the most out of Amazon S3, you need to understand a few simple concepts. Amazon S3 stores data as objects within buckets. An object consists of a file and optionally any metadata that describes that file. To store an object in Amazon S3, you upload the file you want to store to a bucket. When you upload a file, you can set permissions on the object and any metadata.
Buckets are the containers for objects. You can have one or more buckets. For each bucket, you can control access to it (who can create, delete, and list objects in the bucket), view access logs for it and its objects, and choose the geographical region where Amazon S3 will store the bucket and its contents.
To use Amazon S3, you need an AWS account » If you don't already have one, you'll be prompted to create one when you sign up for Amazon S3. You will not be charged for Amazon S3 until you use it.
Every object in Amazon S3 is stored in a bucket. Before you can store data in Amazon S3, you must create an S3 bucket »
Now that you've created a bucket, you're ready to add an object to it. An object can be any kind of file: a text file, a photo, a video, and so on. Read the Getting Started Guide to learn more and start building.
Most customers start developing brand new applications with the AWS developer tools and SDKs » Alternatively, a web-based interface for accessing and managing Amazon S3 resources is available via the AWS Management Console.
Using the AWS SDK
Developers building applications can choose from a wide variety of AWS SDKs that simplify using Amazon S3 in their use case. AWS SDKs for Amazon S3 include libraries, code samples, and documentation for the following programming languages and platforms.
Using the AWS Mobile SDK
The AWS Mobile SDK helps you build high quality mobile apps quickly and easily. It provides access to services specifically designed for building mobile apps, mobile-optimized connectors to popular AWS data streaming, storage and database services, and access to a full array of other AWS services.
The AWS Mobile SDK includes libraries, code samples, and documentation for iOS, Android, and Fire OS so you can build apps that deliver great experiences across devices and platforms.
AWS Training: Amazon S3 free online courses
AWS offers free online storage courses to help you learn how to architect and manage highly available storage solutions built on Amazon S3. Progress from the fundamentals to technical deep dives to advance your Amazon S3 expertise and help your organization migrate to the cloud faster.
Learn more by browsing the training progression options below and visit here for all AWS storage courses.
Introduction to S3
Overview of Amazon S3 and common use cases.
Foundations for S3
Self-paced course provides overview on S3 features and storage classes.
Deep dive on S3
300-level self paced course to use, manage, secure, and optimize S3.
Migrating to S3
Learn how to migrate data from on-premises to S3.
10-minute tutorials and step-by-step guides
Store and retrieve a file
Store your files in the cloud using Amazon S3
Batch upload files to S3
Easily build your own scripts for backing up your files to the cloud
Host a static website
Host a simple personal or marketing website on AWS.
Amazon S3 Logo
Replace backups with S3
Eliminate on-premises tape backups with S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
Ergocentric bariatric task chair.
Moving data to Amazon S3
AWS provides a portfolio of data transfer services to provide the right solution for any data migration project. The level of connectivity is a major factor in data migration, and AWS has offerings that can address your hybrid cloud storage, offline data transfer, and online data transfer needs.
Hybrid cloud storage
Amazon S3 Image Storage
All S3 content has to go in what Amazon calls a 'Bucket'. Bucket names must be globally unique, and you can only create a maximum of 100 Buckets per account. It's easy to see why when you form the next part of the URL:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/codinghorrorimg/
Each Bucket can hold an unlimited number of 'Objects' of essentially unlimited size, with as much arbitrary key-value pair metadata as you want attached. Objects default to private access, but they have explicit access control lists (for Amazon accounts only), and you can make them public. Once we've added an Object, if we grant public read permission to it, we can then access it via the complete site / Bucket / Object URL:
http://s3.amazonaws.com/codinghorrorimg/codinghorror-bandwidth-usage.png
There's no concept of folders in S3. You can only emulate folder structures by adding Objects with tricky names like subfolder/myfile.txt. And you can't rename Buckets or Objects, as far as I can tell. But at least I can control the exact filenames, which I was unable to do with any other image hosting service.
In my testing I ended up uploading the entire contents of my /images folder twice. That cost me a whopping two cents according to my real-time S3 account statement:
It's almost like micropayments in action.
S3 will probably end up costing me slightly more than the 'Unlimited' $25/year accounts available on popular personal photo sharing sites. With S3, there's no illusion of unlimited bandwidth use unconstrained by cost. And personal photo and image sharing sites are often blocked by corporate networks, which makes sense if you consider their intended purpose: informally sharing personal photos. S3 is a more professional image hosting choice; it offers tighter control along with a full set of developer APIs.
Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is storage for the internet. You can use Amazon S3 to store and retrieve any amount of data at any time, from anywhere on the web. You can accomplish these tasks using the AWS Management Console, which is a simple and intuitive web interface.
To get the most out of Amazon S3, you need to understand a few simple concepts. Amazon S3 stores data as objects within buckets. An object consists of a file and optionally any metadata that describes that file. To store an object in Amazon S3, you upload the file you want to store to a bucket. When you upload a file, you can set permissions on the object and any metadata.
Buckets are the containers for objects. You can have one or more buckets. For each bucket, you can control access to it (who can create, delete, and list objects in the bucket), view access logs for it and its objects, and choose the geographical region where Amazon S3 will store the bucket and its contents.
To use Amazon S3, you need an AWS account » If you don't already have one, you'll be prompted to create one when you sign up for Amazon S3. You will not be charged for Amazon S3 until you use it.
Every object in Amazon S3 is stored in a bucket. Before you can store data in Amazon S3, you must create an S3 bucket »
Now that you've created a bucket, you're ready to add an object to it. An object can be any kind of file: a text file, a photo, a video, and so on. Read the Getting Started Guide to learn more and start building.
Most customers start developing brand new applications with the AWS developer tools and SDKs » Alternatively, a web-based interface for accessing and managing Amazon S3 resources is available via the AWS Management Console.
Using the AWS SDK
Developers building applications can choose from a wide variety of AWS SDKs that simplify using Amazon S3 in their use case. AWS SDKs for Amazon S3 include libraries, code samples, and documentation for the following programming languages and platforms.
Using the AWS Mobile SDK
The AWS Mobile SDK helps you build high quality mobile apps quickly and easily. It provides access to services specifically designed for building mobile apps, mobile-optimized connectors to popular AWS data streaming, storage and database services, and access to a full array of other AWS services.
The AWS Mobile SDK includes libraries, code samples, and documentation for iOS, Android, and Fire OS so you can build apps that deliver great experiences across devices and platforms.
AWS Training: Amazon S3 free online courses
AWS offers free online storage courses to help you learn how to architect and manage highly available storage solutions built on Amazon S3. Progress from the fundamentals to technical deep dives to advance your Amazon S3 expertise and help your organization migrate to the cloud faster.
Learn more by browsing the training progression options below and visit here for all AWS storage courses.
Introduction to S3
Overview of Amazon S3 and common use cases.
Foundations for S3
Self-paced course provides overview on S3 features and storage classes.
Deep dive on S3
300-level self paced course to use, manage, secure, and optimize S3.
Migrating to S3
Learn how to migrate data from on-premises to S3.
10-minute tutorials and step-by-step guides
Store and retrieve a file
Store your files in the cloud using Amazon S3
Batch upload files to S3
Easily build your own scripts for backing up your files to the cloud
Host a static website
Host a simple personal or marketing website on AWS.
Amazon S3 Logo
Replace backups with S3
Eliminate on-premises tape backups with S3 Glacier Deep Archive.
Ergocentric bariatric task chair.
Moving data to Amazon S3
AWS provides a portfolio of data transfer services to provide the right solution for any data migration project. The level of connectivity is a major factor in data migration, and AWS has offerings that can address your hybrid cloud storage, offline data transfer, and online data transfer needs.
Hybrid cloud storage
Amazon S3 Image Storage
Offline data transfer
The AWS Snow Family is comprised of AWS Snowcone, AWS Snowball, and AWS Snowmobile. AWS Snowcone and AWS Snowball are small, rugged, and secure portable storage and edge computing devices for data collection, processing, and migration. These devices are purpose-built for use in edge locations where network capacity is constrained or nonexistent and provide storage and computing capabilities in harsh environments. AWS Snowmobile is an exabyte-scale data transfer service used to move massive volumes of data to the cloud, including video libraries, image repositories, or even a complete data center migration.
Online data transfer
AWS DataSync makes it easy and efficient to transfer hundreds of terabytes and millions of files into Amazon S3, up to 10x faster than open-source tools. DataSync automatically handles or eliminates many manual tasks, including scripting copy jobs, scheduling and monitoring transfers, validating data, and optimizing network utilization. Using Snowcone, you can even transfer data online with AWS DataSync from edge locations.
The AWS Transfer Family provides fully managed, simple, and seamless file transfer to Amazon S3 using SFTP, FTPS, and FTP.
Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration enables fast transfers of files over long distances between your client and your Amazon S3 bucket. Amazon Kinesis and AWS IoT Core make it simple and secure to capture and load streaming data from IoT devices to Amazon S3.
Learn more about AWS cloud data migration services »
Videos
Stay up to date with AWS webinars »
Using the AWS Partner Network
Amazon S3 is integrated with third-party connectors to help you bring data in and out of the AWS Cloud. The AWS Partner Network (APN) Competency Program is designed to provide AWS customers with top quality technology and consulting providers who have demonstrated technical proficiency and proven success in specialized solutions areas. Partners who have attained an APN Competency offer a variety of services, software, and solutions that are integrated with the AWS Cloud.
AWS Storage Competency Partners can help customers evaluate and use the techniques and technologies to effectively store data in the AWS cloud.
Learn more about AWS Storage Competency Partners »
Blogs
No blog posts have been found at this time. Please see the AWS Blog for other resources.
Amazon S3 Photo Storage Boxes
Additional resources
Storage blog »
Amazon S3 forum »
FAQs »
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