Storage Classes
ELI5 — The Vibe Check
Storage classes are tiers of cloud storage with different price/performance tradeoffs. Hot storage is fast and expensive (for stuff you access every day). Cold storage is cheap but slow (for stuff you rarely touch). It's like the difference between your desk drawer and a storage unit across town — both hold your stuff, very different accessibility.
Real Talk
Storage classes represent tiers of object storage optimized for different access patterns. AWS S3 offers Standard, Intelligent-Tiering, Standard-IA, One Zone-IA, Glacier Instant Retrieval, Glacier Flexible Retrieval, and Glacier Deep Archive. Each tier trades retrieval speed and availability for lower storage costs.
When You'll Hear This
"Put frequently accessed assets in S3 Standard and archives in Glacier." / "S3 Intelligent-Tiering automatically moves objects between storage classes based on access patterns."
Related Terms
Cloud Storage
Cloud storage is just storing your files on someone else's servers in the cloud instead of your own hard drive.
Glacier
Glacier is AWS's deep-freeze storage. It's absurdly cheap — we're talking fractions of a penny per GB per month. The catch?
Object Lifecycle
Object lifecycle policies automatically manage your cloud storage objects as they age.
S3 (Simple Storage Service)
S3 is Amazon's giant file locker in the sky.