AWS Knowledge
Understanding Amazon EFS Pricing and Costs
Piyush Kalra
Nov 11, 2024
Cost-effective management of cloud storage is a crucial concern for businesses of all sizes. Among the many storage solutions available, Amazon Elastic File System is a standout choice for organizations seeking scalable and flexible storage options. However, as with all cloud services, managing costs effectively requires a clear understanding of Amazon EFS’s pricing structure.
This blog explores the Amazon EFS pricing model, its key features, cost-saving opportunities, and practical tips to help you optimize your storage costs. By the end, you’ll have a comprehensive grasp of EFS's value and a roadmap for smarter cloud storage management.
What is Amazon EFS?
(Image Source: AWS EFS)
Amazon EFS is an application that provides users with a number of functions and mechanisms through which they can operate a single interface remotely. Its aim is to help those who need to employ file sharing for its users and applications without needing to use physical storage systems. EFS expands and compresses automatically depending on the precisions done within the system, thus optimizing space and expenditure.
Key Features of Amazon EFS
Fully Managed: There is no requirement to maintain any hardware or worry about cluster configurations, AWS does everything for you.
Scalable: Automatically scales up or down based on your storage requirements.
High availability: Provides data redundancy across several Availability Zones (AZs) which enhances service outage tolerance.
Serverless: No need to care about the expenditures of mainframe installation or the manual partitioning of the systems.
Multi-user: It can be accessed simultaneously by hundreds of applications and VPCs based on the Linux operating system.
EFS vs. Other AWS Storage Options
Amazon EFS excels in scalability and file-sharing use cases. Here's how it compares to other AWS storage solutions:
Amazon S3: Suitable for collapsing sub-storages with strict latency of services like data lakes.
Amazon EBS: Recommended for substorages with a single organization.
The internet as a whole will always have different forms of structure but the great thing about EFS is how perfectly it caters to companies that require shared files that are often being modified.
How Does Amazon EFS Work?
Amazon EFS acts as a centralized file system that can be attached on multiple instances concurrently. It works by way of mount targets, and thus the scale of work can be done without struggling.
Storage Architecture
Amazon EFS has two file system configurations that best suit certain requirements:
EFS Regional File System (Multi-AZ): Data is stored in a three-tier system across three Availability Zones for redundancy, thus allowing recovery if one zone is down.
EFS One Zone: This is a more cost-effective option since even the recommended workloads are less critical.
Use Cases Across Industries
Big Data Analytics: Greatly enhances the data exchange interface between analytical tools with high throughput.
Development and Testing: Offers managed storage for cyclical projects that do not permit standard throughput.
Enterprise Backup: Functions as a reliable storage of backup for crucial information.
Containerized Applications: Applications hosted on Kubernetes or ECS clusters can access shared resources.
Deep Dive into Amazon EFS Pricing Structure
Amazon EFS utilization goes hand in hand with its value optimization, and being aware of such pricing differences by area factors in the mix. So let’s get into a detailed analysis of its pricing model:
Storage Costs
In the US East (N. Virginia) region, EFS tiered storage pricing is based on the storage classes:
EFS Standard: High-performance storage ideal for frequently accessed data at a monthly cost of $0.30 per GB.
EFS Infrequent Access (IA): Cost-optimized storage for data used very infrequently at a monthly cost of $0.016 per GB.
EFS Archive: Monthly cost of $0.008 for every GB, this is suitable for data locked away for the long term with little use.
Data Transfer Costs
Reads and Writes: These are also chargeable, $0.03/GB for reads and $0.06/GB for writes under all storage classes.
Tiering Costs: Transfers between storage classes incur additional charges:
Standard to IA or vice versa: $0.01/GB.
IA to Archive or vice versa: $0.03/GB.
Throughput Modes
Amazon EFS offers two options available through which the data may be transferred:
Elastic Throughput: Pay as you go type, this one is well suited to workloads that change frequently.
Provisioned Throughput: Quite an effective option for when there is a continuous need for high throughput. However, this would come with an additional charge of $6/MBps a month.
No Setup Costs
Amazon EFS functions on a pay-as-you-go structure so there are no minimum storage limits or any setup costs.
Example
Assuming we perform our workload in a very common situation in the US East (N. Virginia) scenario:
Storage Costs:
100 GB in EFS Standard: 100 GB x $0.30/GB = $30/month
500 GB in EFS Infrequent Access (IA): 500 GB x $0.016/GB = $8/month
Total Storage Cost: $30 + $8 = $38/month
Data Transfer Costs:
Suppose there are 10 GB reads and 5 GB writes:
Reads: 10 GB x $0.03/GB = $0.30
Writes: 5 GB x $0.06/GB = $0.30
Total Data Transfer Cost: $0.30 + $0.30 = $0.60
Tiering Costs:
If you transfer 20 GB from Standard to IA: 20 GB x $0.01/GB = $0.20
Total Monthly Cost:
Storage + Data Transfer + Tiering: $38 + $0.60 + $0.20 = $38.80/month
Note: AWS pricing varies based on the region, and it's worth checking to see what the current prices are in your area the rates for your specific location.
Additional Pricing Benefits
AWS gives you several services that should assist you in saving more costs with Amazon EFS.
Lifecycle data Management
Transitioning of unused files into cheaper repositories is done automatically by the Lifecycle management:
Files inactive for 30 days move from Standard to IA.
Files inactive for 90 days move from IA to Archive.
AWS Free Tier
For the first year, 5 GB/ month of the EFS Standard storage has been given free of charge to new customers to try the service, which is a good opportunity.
Reserved Capacity Discounts
Amazon web services has some additional pricing benefits in also providing discounts on long-term storage reservations or reserved capacity plans.
Case Study: Here's how Discover Financial Services accelerated analytics with AWS
The major focus of Discover Financial Services is to make the banking and credit products reach the customers in a way that will help them reach their goals. They utilize data and analytics with the aim of improving customer experience. In order to improve analytics performance and maintain that same performance, Discover developed a model where multiple analytics from Discover were consolidated into one centralized model.
Solution:
Developed collaboration within Air9, a data science internal workbench.
Deployed applications on Kubernetes enabled us to take advantage of containerized environments.
Used Amazon EC2 as computing resources.
Sourced Amazon EFS as shared storage that is secure and easy to scale.
Employed Amazon S3 and S3 Glacier for reasonable-priced data archiving and backup.
Results:
Boosted productivity and efficiency with faster insights.
Reduced storage management time by 90%.
Cut costs by 50–60%.
Tools and Tips for Cutting Amazon EFS Costs
Use these strategies as well as tools to cut down on your EFS storage expenditure:
Tools for Cost Monitoring
AWS Pricing Calculator: Make an educated guess as per what types of costs you can incur.
CloudWatch Metrics: Track how frequently the efs file system is being accessed along with monitoring the resources.
Tips for Cost Optimization
Set a schedule for the deletion of any redundant files taking up space without cost.
Use One Zone storage for non-mission critical data in order to save on costs for redundancy.
Use suitable Lifecycle Management Policies to manage data by automating tiering.
Select the Right Storage Class
Different workloads will necessitate the selection of varying storage classes:
Make use EFS Standard for data that is accessed frequently and has low latency thresholds.
Go For IA for workloads that are worked on snakes or every few days.
Move your data to Archive storage when long-term low access is required.
Conclusion
Amazon EFS is an important component, to help centralize cloud storage. Organizations can seemingly achieve the most value from their cloud expenditure by assessing core pricing metrics, using lifecycle management, and using services such as Reserved Capacity discounts.
In trying to achieve the costs-related goals, you can start by trying to understand how Amazon EFS free tier works. Check out the AWS free tier on Amazon EFS or check out the AWS Pricing calculator for more options!
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