6.3 AWS S3 Transfer Acceleration

Overview

AWS S3 Transfer Acceleration is a feature designed to speed up the transfer of files to and from Amazon S3. By leveraging Amazon CloudFront’s globally distributed edge locations, this service significantly reduces the time to upload files across long distances.

Purpose and Key Objectives

Faster Data Transfer:

• Purpose: To enhance the speed of transferring large amounts of data into and out of Amazon S3 buckets, particularly over long distances.
• Key Objective: Minimize latency and increase transfer speeds, providing a more efficient data management process.

Global Reach and Efficiency:

• Purpose: To leverage AWS’s expansive network of edge locations, ensuring faster data uploads and downloads regardless of geographical distance.
• Key Objective: Enable businesses operating globally to manage their data more effectively, ensuring quick access and upload times.

Business Use Cases

1. Content Distribution: Ideal for media companies needing to distribute large files quickly across the globe.
2. Data Migration: Facilitates faster data migration into AWS for enterprises moving large volumes of data.
3. Backup and Disaster Recovery: Enhances the speed of backing up data to S3, crucial for disaster recovery plans.
4. Big Data Analysis: Enables quicker upload of large datasets for businesses involved in big data analysis.

Enabling S3 Transfer Acceleration

Using AWS Console:

1. Select Your Bucket: Open the Amazon S3 console and choose the bucket for which you want to enable Transfer Acceleration.
2. Access Properties: Navigate to the “Properties” tab for the bucket.
3. 
4. Transfer Acceleration: Scroll down to the “Transfer Acceleration” section.
5. Enable Feature: Click “Edit” and enable Transfer Acceleration.
6. Save Changes: Confirm and save your changes.

Using AWS CLI:

1. Enable Transfer Acceleration:

aws s3api put-bucket-accelerate-configuration --bucket <your-bucket-name> --accelerate-configuration Status=Enabled

1. Replace <your-bucket-name> with your bucket’s name.
2. Verify Configuration:

aws s3api get-bucket-accelerate-configuration --bucket <your-bucket-name>

Upload Files Using the Accelerated Endpoint:

• When uploading files, you’ll use this new accelerated endpoint instead of the standard S3 endpoint. This can be done through various methods, including AWS SDKs, the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), or third-party tools that support S3 Transfer Acceleration.
• For example, if you’re using the AWS CLI, you can upload a file using the following command:

aws s3 cp localfilename s3://bucketname/path/to/destination --endpoint-url https://bucketname.s3-accelerate.amazonaws.com

Replace localfilename, bucketname, and path/to/destination with your file’s name, your bucket’s name, and the path where you want to store the file in S3, respectively.

Best Practices

• Testing Speeds: After enabling, test upload and download speeds to ensure Transfer Acceleration is beneficial for your use case.
• Cost-Effective Use: Be mindful of additional costs associated with S3 Transfer Acceleration and use it when the speed benefits justify the expense.
• Data Security: Ensure your data is secure during transfer by using proper encryption methods.

Conclusion

AWS S3 Transfer Acceleration is an invaluable feature for businesses needing to transfer large amounts of data quickly and efficiently. By leveraging the power of AWS’s global network, it provides a solution for organizations to manage their global data transfer needs effectively.