S3 Storage Class Optimization: Cut Cold Data Costs with Intelligent Tiering
Run S3 Inventory, apply lifecycle rules to move 90+ day objects to IA or Glacier, and enable Intelligent‑Tiering for infrequently accessed data.
Run S3 Inventory, apply lifecycle rules to move 90+ day objects to IA or Glacier, and enable Intelligent‑Tiering for infrequently accessed data.
Summary
A typical 18‑month old S3 bucket contains 70–80 % of objects older than 90 days, all stored in Standard at $0.023/GB/month. Moving these objects to cheaper classes can save up to $22.54/month per TB: Standard‑IA at $0.0125/GB, Glacier Instant at $0.004/GB, and Deep Archive at $0.00099/GB. Retrieval costs, however, rise with lower classes—Standard‑IA charges $0.01/GB, Glacier Instant $0.03/GB, and Deep Archive $0.02/GB—so the benefit depends on access frequency.
Intelligent‑Tiering automates transitions between Frequent and Infrequent Access tiers, charging a $0.0025 per 1,000‑object monitoring fee. It pays off for objects larger than 128 KB accessed less than once a month, but can cost 11× the storage bill for 50 million 10 KB objects. Lifecycle rules should transition objects at 30, 90, 180, and 365 days to IA, Glacier Instant, Glacier Flexible, and Deep Archive respectively, with a 2555‑day expiry.
The article stresses the importance of running S3 Inventory and Storage Lens to identify candidates, applying lifecycle rules per prefix, and guarding against failure modes such as mis‑tagged objects or disabled transition settings.
Key changes
- Standard 0.023/GB, Standard‑IA 0.0125/GB, Glacier Instant 0.004/GB, Deep Archive 0.00099/GB
- Retrieval costs: Standard‑IA 0.01/GB, Glacier Instant 0.03/GB, Deep Archive 0.02/GB
- Intelligent‑Tiering monitoring fee $0.0025 per 1,000 objects/month
- Lifecycle transitions at 30, 90, 180, 365 days
- 70–80% of objects older than 90 days in Standard
- 50TB Standard storage costs $1,150/month; Deep Archive saves $22.54/month