Courses
Cloudwards Video Courses New
  1. Cloud Computing
  2. Infrastructure as a service reviews
  3. Amazon Glacier

Cloudwards.net may earn a small commission from some purchases made through our site. However, any earnings do not affect how we review services. Learn more about our editorial integrity and research process.

Visit Amazon Glacier
  • High availability
  • Low storage costs
  • Redundant storage
Amazon Glacier Review
↑

Amazon Glacier Review

Amazon Glacier is a low-cost, easy-to-use, highly available and highly durable storage service. Its data retrieval flexibility based on multiple storage options is particularly impressive. This Amazon Glacier review dives into all it offers.

Adeyomola Kazeem
By Adeyomola Kazeem (Writer)
— Last Updated: 2024-12-04T20:54:00+00:00 Facts checked by Igor Kurtz
Key Takeaways: Amazon Simple Storage Service Glacier 
  • Amazon Simple Storage Service Glacier is an object storage solution for archiving data in long-term storage, also known as cold storage.
  • S3 Glacier is available as three options: Instant Retrieval, Flexible Retrieval and Deep Archive.
  • Glacier storage has a minimum storage duration of 90 days (180 days for Deep Archive).

Facts & Expert Analysis About AWS Glacier:

  • Tiered storage: Glacier offers three tiered storage options. Instant Retrieval is designed for the highest access frequency, fastest data retrieval and least cost-effectiveness. Deep Archive has the lowest access frequency and slowest data retrieval, and is the cheapest. Flexible Retrieval offers a compromise between both worlds.
  • Plan for data retrieval: Data retrieval from Glacier Deep Archive can take as long as 48 hours, depending on the size of the data being retrieved. When transferring data for retrieval, you should plan ahead to ensure it falls within your timeframe.
  • Lifecycle management: If you’re using either Glacier Instant Retrieval or Flexible Retrieval, you can incorporate lifecycle transition policies, which will move objects with very low access frequency to Deep Archive when certain conditions are met. Such policies can further optimize costs.

Amazon S3 offers various storage classes, each one of which is tailored toward specific storage needs that are mostly dependent on access frequency. The most popular class, S3 Standard, works fine for general-purpose object storage, but if you’re looking to archive data for extended periods, S3 Glacier is the best option.

Amazon Glacier comes in three types — Instant Retrieval, Flexible Retrieval and Deep Archive — and each one offers varying data retrieval speeds. Not only does Amazon Glacier optimize data archiving, but it also offers options for seamless data retrieval as needed based on your use case.

We evaluate the pros, cons, features and pricing in this Amazon Glacier Review, as well as alternative object archiving storage solutions. We also compare it to the other S3 storage classes to help you gain clarity on which class is most suitable for you.

  • 12/04/2024 Facts checked

    Cloudwards rewrote this review with updates to features, pricing and more.

What Is Amazon S3 Glacier & Who Is It For?

Amazon S3 Glacier is the Amazon S3 storage class tailored toward object archiving. It is for individuals or organizations looking to archive or back up data for at least 90 days (or 180 days with Glacier Deep Archive). If you store data for shorter periods than the minimum, you’ll have to pay a prorated charge for the remaining days.

10,000+ Trust Our Free Cloud Storage Tips. Join Today!

  • Demystify cloud storage terminology and key concepts in plain language
  • Discover easy-to-implement techniques to securely backup and sync your data across devices
  • Learn money-saving strategies to optimize your cloud storage costs and usage
Please enable JavaScript in your browser to complete this form.

Depending on which of the three Amazon Glacier subclasses you opt for, the speed with which you can retrieve your objects from the archive will vary. Instant Retrieval allows for the fastest retrieval (within milliseconds), while Deep Archive takes hours. Flexible Retrieval can take minutes or hours.

The Cloudwards Expert Opinion

Cloudwards Expert Opinion

Adeyomola Kazeem is a Cloudwards cloud computing expert writer.

When it comes to frequently accessed Amazon S3 classes, like Standard and Express One Zone, you may readily find alternatives with competitive prices. Meanwhile, Glacier — particularly Deep Archive — offers prices that are not as easy to beat. I really like its pricing for cold storage.

The flexibility to choose from three options with varying data retrieval speeds gives Glacier a wide range of capabilities. However, the data retrieval and retrieval request costs can add up pretty fast — but they’d still be cheaper than on-premises solutions.

S3 Glacier Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • High availability
  • Low storage costs
  • Redundant storage

Cons:

  • Retrieval charges apply
  • Long retrieval times for Glacier Deep Archive
  • Charges for storage durations shorter than the minimum

S3 Glacier Features: What Can AWS Glacier Do?

90 % – Excellent

AWS Glacier is primarily for archiving data, but beyond that it offers flexible data retrieval, lifecycle transitions, durability and availability. 

Data Archiving

S3 Glacier stores infrequently accessed data for long periods (a minimum of 90 days, or 180 days with Deep Archive) at low prices. Instead of using one of the frequently accessed S3 storage classes, such as S3 Standard or S3 Express One Zone, which have higher unit prices, you can save by using a Glacier storage class.

Flexible Data Retrieval

S3 Glacier offers three storage options, depending on how quickly you want to retrieve your archived data. For infrequently accessed data that you may need immediate access to at any point, the Instant Retrieval option is the best, as it allows retrieval within milliseconds. However, it costs more.

If you do not require immediate access to your data, the Flexible Retrieval or Deep Archive options could work for you. The Flexible Retrieval option would be best if you retrieve data multiple times a year. However, if you have to retrieve data only once or twice a year, Deep Archive would be the better option.

Lifecycle Transitions

All three S3 Glacier storage options support downstream lifecycle transitions. In other words, you can define lifecycle configurations that move your objects from Glacier Instant Retrieval to Glacier Flexible Retrieval to Glacier Deep Archive.

Conversely, lifecycle transitions cannot move objects upstream, such as from Glacier Deep Archive to Glacier Flexible Retrieval or from Glacier Flexible Retrieval to Glacier Instant Retrieval.

If you transition objects before they reach their minimum duration, you’ll pay a prorated charge for the remaining days of that minimum. In addition, by default, AWS does not allow objects 128kB or smaller to transition to any storage class, as it isn’t cost-efficient. However, you can change this default if necessary.

Durability and Availability

Objects stored in Amazon Glacier are replicated across at least three availability zones, enhancing durability by reducing the chances of permanent data loss. That aside, Glacier comes with an SLA of 99% for Instant Retrieval and 99.9% for Flexible Retrieval and Deep Archive.

Amazon Glacier Pricing

90 % – Excellent

When using Amazon S3 Glacier, you are charged for storage, retrieval requests, data retrieval and security. 

Storage Cost

Storage on Glacier Instant Retrieval goes for $0.004 per GB per month, while Glacier Flexible Retrieval costs $0.0036 per GB per month. Glacier Deep Archive — the cheapest — charges $0.00099 per GB per month. That said, these rates are for the US-East region; they may be different in other regions.

Retrieval Requests Cost

Retrieval request charges are not applicable to Glacier Instant Retrieval, but for Glacier Flexible Retrieval you pay $10 per 1,000 expedited requests and $0.05 per 1,000 standard requests.

Retrieval requests on Glacier Deep Archive go for $0.10 and $0.025 per 1,000 requests for standard and bulk retrieval requests, respectively.

Data Retrieval Cost

Glacier Instant Retrieval charges $0.03 per GB for data retrieval, while Deep Archive charges $0.02 and $0.0025 per GB for standard and bulk, respectively.

When using Glacier Flexible Retrieval, you pay $0.03 per GB for expedited retrievals, $0.01 per GB for standard retrievals and $100 per provisioned capacity unit.

Security Cost

S3 offers four types of encryption, and only one of them — the dual-layer server-side encryption (DSSE-KMS) — is not free. If you use DSSE-KMS, you’ll pay $0.003 per GB. In addition to encryption, S3 Glacier charges $0.003 per 1,000 requests when you use access grants.

Server Network

95 % – Excellent

Amazon S3 is built on AWS’ global infrastructure, featuring 108 availability zones and 34 launched regions on every continent except Antarctica. In this infrastructure, objects stored in Amazon Glacier are redundant across at least three availability zones. 

This ensures durability — if a disaster that leads to permanent data loss takes place in one availability zone, copies in other zones help you avoid permanent data loss.

Besides multi-zonal redundancy, Glacier supports two types of replication: live replication and on-demand replication (also called S3 Batch Replication). Live replication creates copies of data as it’s written to the primary bucket, kind of like a continuous backup. On-demand replication creates copies of extant data.

There are two types of live replication: cross-region replication (CRR) and same-region replication (SRR). With CRR, you keep copies of your data in different AWS regions, further reducing the chances of permanent data loss following disaster. Meanwhile, SRR affords you the chance to have multiple environments with similar data in the same region.

All in all, the combination of redundancy, replication and a global server network forms the basis of Glacier’s ability to reliably store large amounts of data.

Ease of Use

95 % – Excellent

Using Amazon Glacier is pretty simple: Here are the basic steps to create a bucket, upload objects to it and choose one of three Glacier storage options. 

  1. Create an S3 Bucket

    To create an S3 bucket, go to the Amazon S3 console page and click on “create bucket.” On the ensuing screen, enter a globally unique bucket name, adjust other configurations as desired, scroll down and click “create bucket” at the bottom.

    Create S3 Bucket
  2. Upload an Object to the Bucket

    After creating the new bucket, you’ll be redirected to a page with a list of buckets in your account. Click on your target bucket, then click on the “upload” button.

    Upload Object
  3. Add File or Add Folder

    On the page after the “upload” button, click “add files” or “add folder” to upload objects to your bucket. Note that you can use only the AWS CLI, AWS SDKs or S3 REST API if you’re uploading data larger than 160GB.

    Add Files
  4. Choose Storage Class

    After adding the file, scroll down and click on “properties” to switch the storage class to your desired Glacier storage. Once that’s done, make any other configurational changes as you deem fit. Then, scroll down and click the “upload” button to upload the object.

    Choose Storage Class

Security

95 % – Excellent

Amazon Glacier offers security through encryption, access grants, bucket policies and access control lists (ACLs). 

Encryption

Like every other Amazon S3 class, objects stored in Amazon Glacier are encrypted at rest and by default. This encryption is achieved using Amazon S3 managed keys. However, you can also use your own encryption keys or keys from AWS Key Management Service (KMS).

None of these encryption options will incur extra S3 charges, but you may incur a KMS charge when using AWS KMS. However, there’s a fourth encryption option — dual-layer server-side encryption using keys in AWS KMS (DSSE-KMS). DSSE-KMS offers two layers of encryption and comes in handy if you need to meet certain industry standards.

Access Grants

Access grants work with identity and access management tools such as AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) and Azure Active Directory (Microsoft Entra ID). It maps identities from those identity tools to data in Amazon S3, ensuring end-users get access to only the data they should have access to, nothing more.

With access grants, you can monitor each identity in your identity management system and track their history of accessing data in your bucket. This makes for thorough auditing.

Access Control Lists (ACLs)

Like access grants, ACLs granularize access to objects in S3 Glacier. However, whereas access grants work with identities from identity and access management tools like Active Directory and AWS IAM, ACLs work with AWS accounts or predefined S3 groups.

When using ACLs, you can specify either the user ID or the email address of the AWS account to be granted access. Alternatively, you can use a preconfigured S3 group, which can grant access to a broader group of end-users.

Bucket Policies

You can also use bucket policies to control access to your S3 Glacier buckets. What’s the difference between access grants, access control lists and bucket policies? Bucket policies control access to the buckets, while access grants and access control lists are more granular, as they control access to objects in the buckets.

Support

90 % – Excellent

AWS has S3 sales specialists dedicated to providing information about Glacier and S3 storage classes. In addition, you can choose from one of five support plans: Basic, Developer, Business, Enterprise On-Ramp and Enterprise.

With the Basic support, which is free, you get access to account and billing support, support forums and online resources. However, for architecture support and access to diagnostic tools, you need one of the paid plans.

With the Business plan, you get use-case guidance, AWS Trusted Advisor, third-party software support and Support API. If you want an even higher level of support, go with Enterprise On-Ramp or Enterprise, as they offer architectural guidance, infrastructure event management and a technical account manager in addition to the Business plan’s features.

AWS Glacier Alternatives

AWS Glacier alternatives include Google Cloud Coldline, Google Cloud Archive, Azure Blob Storage cold tier and Azure Blob Storage archive tier. Let’s take a quick look at these AWS Glacier alternatives.

1. Google Cloud Coldline Storage

Coldline Storage
Google Cloud does not allow you to change your storage class from the console.

We noticed Google Cloud Coldline Storage is similar to Glacier Instant Retrieval and Glacier Flexible Retrieval in that it has a minimum storage duration of 90 days. However, both Glacier storage options have lower storage costs than Google Cloud Coldline Storage in similar regions.

2. Google Cloud Archive Storage

Archive Storage
You can change your Google Cloud Storage class through
the command line, client libraries or REST APIs.

Google Cloud Archive Storage is equivalent to Glacier Deep Archive. However, Deep Archive offers a shorter minimum storage duration — 180 days, compared to Cloud Archive Storage’s 365 days. Glacier Deep Archive also offers significant savings compared to Cloud Archive Storage in similar data center locations.

3. Azure Blob Storage Archive Tier

Blob Archive Tier
The Azure Blob archive tier works fine for data you only access once or twice a year.

Microsoft Azure’s Blob Storage archive tier is equivalent to Glacier Deep Archive. Both services have a minimum storage duration of 180 days, are for infrequently accessed data and feature similar pricing in some locations.

4. Azure Blob Storage Cold Tier

Blob Cold Tier
If you need immediate access to archived data, Azure Blob Storage cold tier is great.

Azure Blob Cold Storage is a Glacier Flexible Retrieval equivalent — it has a 90-day minimum storage duration and similar pricing in some locations. In addition, its retrieval speed is in milliseconds, as is Glacier Instant Retrieval’s.

The Verdict: Is AWS S3 Glacier a Good Service? 

Yes, AWS S3 Glacier is a good service. It features multiple access control features and encryption methods, ensuring a high level of security. It also comes at a low cost, it’s built on a redundant and durable network of servers, and its usage is straightforward. That said, some of its pricing components, particularly the retrieval fees, can add up really fast.

Which cloud services do you currently use to archive or back up long-term data? Would you consider switching to S3 Glacier? Share your experience with us in the comments below. Once again, thank you for reading.

FAQ: S3 Glacier Review

  • Amazon Glacier is good for storing infrequently accessed data for a long time.

  • Amazon Glacier is generally secure, as it uses encryption at rest and offers multiple access control methods. That said, the security is ultimately down to how you configure your buckets and objects.

  • The charges for using Amazon Glacier include storage, retrieval requests, data retrieval, encryption and access grants.

  • Amazon Glacier is not designed for short-term data storage, as it focuses on minimizing storage costs for long storage periods.

Visit Amazon Glacier
↑ Top