Simple Storage Service (S3) provides a web-based service for hosting files. Files are referred to as objects and grouped in buckets. Objects are effectively a key-value pair, similar to a document database. Keys are used like file paths, with / used as a separator and grouping character. Buckets can be easily accessed like a website via an automatically generated domain name.
Due to being associated with a domain name, bucket names must be globally unique.
Some recommended usecases for S3 are:
- Static website assets
- Sharing large files
- Short-term (a.k.a. warm) backups
