Amazon Elastic Block Store (EBS) is a block storage service provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS). It is designed to provide persistent block-level storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances. With Amazon EBS, users can create and attach storage volumes to their EC2 instances, allowing them to store data, databases, and applications separately from the EC2 instance itself.
EBS volumes are highly durable and reliable, offering a 99.999% availability SLA. This makes them suitable for critical workloads that require high levels of data availability and durability. EBS volumes also provide consistent, low-latency performance, making them well-suited for a wide range of applications, including databases and transactional workloads.
One of the key features of Amazon EBS is its ability to create point-in-time snapshots of volumes. These snapshots can be used to back up data and to create new volumes, either within the same region or in a different region. This enables users to create backups and replicate data easily for disaster recovery purposes.
Amazon EBS supports several types of volumes, each optimized for different use cases:
- General Purpose volumes: These volumes offer a balance of price and performance and are suitable for a wide range of workloads.
- Provisioned IOPS volumes: These volumes are designed for workloads that require high levels of IOPS (Input/Output Operations Per Second), such as databases and large-scale applications.
- Throughput Optimized volumes: These volumes are optimized for frequently accessed, throughput-intensive workloads, such as big data processing and data warehousing.
- Cold HDD volumes: These volumes are designed for infrequently accessed, throughput-intensive workloads, such as long-term data storage and backups.
In overall, Amazon EBS provides a reliable and scalable storage solution for Amazon EC2 instances. Its durability, high availability, and performance make it a valuable tool for managing data and applications in the AWS cloud.