Amazon has launched Simple Storage Service, or S3, for developers who need to store and retrieve files without buying storage servers.
The initial service uses developer-assigned keys to identify objects and offers REST and SOAP interfaces. Objects can be private or public, with access assigned to specific users.
What this changes
- Applications can keep uploaded files outside their own web servers.
- Capacity can grow independently of the application machine.
- Storage and delivery need to be budgeted together rather than treated as a disk purchase.
An object API does not behave like a mounted drive. Applications need to work with object keys and access permissions, and account for the network path used to retrieve data.