FAQ

Q: What is Amazon S3?

Amazon S3 is an advanced storage network accessible via the Internet. It’s a simple storage service that offers any small business, large company or even an individual access to a highly-scalable, reliable, and low-latency data storage infrastructure at very low costs.

Q: What can I do with Amazon S3?

Amazon S3 provides a simple web services interface that you can use to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web. To use this interface you can create your own software or simply invest in an application like Data Bucket Pro!

Since Amazon S3 is what is known as a highly scalable network, and you only pay for what you use! As your business grows you can access as much of Amazon S3 as you need.

It is designed to be highly flexible: Store any type and amount of data that you want; read the same piece of data a million times (like videos and PDF reports) or only for emergency disaster recovery of your vital business documents etc.

You can even build a sophisticated web application such as the Amazon.com retail web site! (Yes that’s where they keep their own website and data…)

Q: How can I get started using Amazon S3?

Simply sign up for FREE Amazon Web Services account then use Data Bucket Pro to upload/download your files etc

Q: What are the technical benefits of Amazon S3?

Amazon S3 was carefully engineered to meet the requirements for scalability, reliability, speed, low-cost, and simplicity that must be met for Amazon’s internal developers. Amazon S3 passes these same benefits onto any individual/small business or large company.

Q: What kind of data can I store?

You can store virtually any kind of data in any format. Please refer to the Amazon Web Services Licensing Agreement for details.

Q: How much data can I store?

Individual Amazon S3 data objects can range in size from 1 byte to 5 gigabytes. The number of data objects you can store is unlimited. (Please note that version 1.0 of Data Bucket Pro currently has a maximum file transfer size of 2 gigabytes. This will be increased to the full 5 gigabytes in the next major release - FREE to existing customers.)

Q: Where is my data stored?

Amazon S3 offers storage in the United States and in Europe (within the EU).  You can specify where you want to store your data when you create your Amazon S3 buckets. (Amazon have only just announced the European storage facility so we will be providing this facility to Data Bucket Pro users in the next major release - FREE to existing customers.)

Q: What does Amazon do with my data in Amazon S3?

Amazon will store your data and track its associated usage for billing purposes. Amazon will NOT otherwise access your data for any purpose outside of the Amazon S3 offering, except when required to do so by law. Please refer to the Amazon Web Services Licensing Agreement for details.

Q: Does Amazon store its own data in Amazon S3?

Yes. Developers within Amazon use Amazon S3 for a wide variety of projects and rely on it for business-critical operations.

Q: How much does Amazon S3 cost?

Amazon S3 lets you pay only for what you consume and there is no minimum fee. Amazon S3’s pay-as-you-go pricing gives customers access to Amazon’s storage benefits immediately and with no up-front financial investment.

More on pricing here: http://www.databucketpro.com/pricing

Q: How will I be charged and billed for my use of Amazon S3?

There are no set-up fees or commitments to begin using the service. At the end of the month, your credit card will automatically be charged for that month’s usage. You can view your charges for the current billing period at any time on the Amazon Web Services web site, by logging into your Amazon Web Services account, and clicking “Account Activity” under “Your Web Services Account”.

Q: How is Amazon S3 data organized?

Amazon S3 is a simple key-based object store. When you store data, you assign a unique object key that can later be used to retrieve the data. Keys can be any string, and can be constructed to mimic hierarchical attributes. But don’t worry! Data Bucket Pro takes care of all this for you.

Q: How do I interface with Amazon S3?

You can use an application like Data Bucket Pro to manage all your interactions with Amazon S3. However Amazon S3 provides a simple, standards-based REST and SOAP web services interface should you be a software programmer and wish to design and code your own application.

Q: How secure is my data?

Amazon S3 uses proven cryptographic methods to authenticate users. It is your choice to keep your data private, or to make it publicly accessible by third parties. If you would like extra security, there is no restriction on encrypting your data before storing it in Amazon S3. Data Bucket Pro also has a local password facility to prevent unauthorised access.

Q: How reliable is Amazon S3?

Amazon S3 gives any business access to the same highly scalable, reliable, fast, inexpensive data storage infrastructure that Amazon uses to run its own global network of web sites!  The service was designed for 99.99% availability, and carries a service level agreement (SAL) providing service credits if a customer’s availability falls below 99.9%.

Q: What happens if traffic from my application suddenly spikes?

Amazon S3 was designed from the ground up to handle traffic for ANY Internet application (Video/Audio/PDF downloads etc). Pay-as-you-go pricing and unlimited capacity ensures that your incremental costs don’t change and that your service is not interrupted. Amazon S3’s massive scale enables us to spread load evenly, so that no individual application is affected by traffic spikes.

Q: What is the BitTorrent protocol, and how do I use it with Amazon S3?

BitTorrent is an open source Internet distribution protocol. Amazon S3’s bandwidth rates are inexpensive, but BitTorrent allows businesses to further save on bandwidth costs for a popular piece of data by letting users download from Amazon and other users simultaneously. ANY publicly available data in Amazon S3 can be downloaded via the BitTorrent protocol, in addition to the default client/server delivery mechanism. Data Bucket Pro will create the necessary URL for you.

Q: Does Amazon S3 offer a Service Level Agreement (SLA)?

Yes. The Amazon S3 SLA provides for a service credit if a customer’s monthly uptime percentage is below our service commitment in any billing cycle. More information can be found here.

Q: I’m not in the US or Europe; can I use Amazon S3?

Anyone can use Amazon S3.

Q: What do I need to run Data Bucket Pro on my computer?

Currently we support Windows XP and Vista with the common Java Runtime Environment installed.

There is also a Mac OS X version on its way.

Q: Where can I find out more on Data Bucket Pro and Amazon S3?

We have a special 16 page report available for FREE:

http://www.databucketpro.com/special-report.html

Q: I have heard that Amazon S3 uses names that are going fast?

Yes. Amazon S3 uses a concept known as “buckets” to store your data in. These have to be unique, just like domain names.

In fact if you want to use your domain name with the Amazon S3 service you can, but you need to hurry and make sure no-one else has got it first!

Names like entrepreneur, blogging, internetmarketing, podcasting have already gone!

Grab a copy of Data Bucket Pro today and protect your digital assets!

Marc Liron

Kind regards

Marc Liron - Microsoft MVP

PS - If you have any questions, and they are not answered here, then drop us an email.