Understanding the difference between block storage and object storage
As we saw in the previous sections, Amazon EBS stores data in blocks whereas Amazon S3 stores data as objects. So now that we have covered both of these services, the obvious question is which one is better to use. And the obvious answer is – it depends.
Amazon S3 is good for, and often used for, the following:
- Hosting static websites and web pages
- Hosting web images and videos
- Storing petabyte-scale amounts of data to perform data analytics on it
- Assisting in mobile applications
Amazon EBS is well suited for the following:
- Supporting business continuity
- Hosting big data applications that require high control of the environment using Hadoop, Spark, and similar frameworks
- Enabling software testing
- Deploying databases that need to be managed by the user and not AWS
The following table should also help you to decide what service is best for your use...
