Amazon shook up the world of onlien storage with the introduction of Simple Storage Service (S3) in mid-March. The web service is aimed at developers, providing REST and SOAP access to file storage and retrieval for 15 cents a month for a gigabyte of storage and 20 cents for each gigabyte transferred. The service has BitTorrent support built-in, and developers have extended developed many libraries and services in the three months since its launch. I was lucky enough to have Jeff Barr of Amazon present on S3 at this month’s SF Tech Sessions.
Amazon needs to store its own data reliably and cheaply all over the world. S3 opens up the same platform with, 99.9% reliability, to developers around the world. Applications such Jungle Disk, Backup Manager, and S3 Ajax wiki use S3 as their backend.
Jeff Barr mentioned Amazon was able to push the storage prices low due to their existing operating efficiencies. Prices should be adjusted over time as Amazon grows and hardware becomes even cheaper.
I like the S3 system due to its cheap, reliable storage and broad access options. Small developers can use S3 as their backend with one less thing to worry about as they build a business. If you are serving up web pages from your home broadband connection, S3 can handle big files to help you stay small longer.