S3 bucket secrets: everything you need to know

In this article, we’ll dive deep into the topic of S3 buckets—a concept originally popularized by Amazon S3, now widely adopted across many object storage services. We’ll discuss how they work, their uses, management, and integration with other services. The goal of this article is to compile everything you need to know about S3 buckets. Finally, we’ll address the topic of cost by introducing Leviia Object Storage, a sovereign and cost-effective alternative to storage solutions offered by American providers.

Understanding object storage services and how they work

Object storage is a type of data storage where data is managed as objects. Unlike being organized in a hierarchy of folders and subfolders, each data unit is stored as a distinct object with a unique identifier and associated descriptive metadata. This setup enables fast, efficient, and flexible access to large volumes of unstructured data. Unlike the hierarchical structure of file storage, object storage is particularly easy to manage at scale.

Object storage is used by a wide range of organizations and individuals for various tasks—from storing backups and hosting websites to powering large-scale data lakes used in big data analytics and AI workloads. Companies and institutions of all sizes use it to back up data and websites, share files among employees, and even host static websites. Professional photographers rely on this technology to store and share high-resolution photos. Universities and research centers use it to store their extensive research data.

What is an S3 bucket?

In the context of object storage, an S3 bucket is a storage unit that holds data in the form of objects. Buckets are the primary containers in which objects are organized, stored, and managed.

In an S3 bucket, each object—whether a text file, image, PDF document, video, or other data type—is stored individually with its own set of metadata and a unique identifier. This identifier is used to access the object and is independent of a directory or file structure. As a result, a bucket can hold a virtually unlimited number of objects while maintaining high performance.

While Amazon S3 buckets are the most widely known, today’s object storage landscape includes S3-compatible services offered by independent and sovereign cloud providers—ensuring flexibility and compliance without vendor lock-in.

Key benefits of S3-compatible buckets for scalable storage

Cost-Effectiveness: Compared to other storage forms, such as traditional hard drives or SSDs, S3 object storage can be significantly more affordable. Depending on your needs and usage patterns, S3 storage costs can be up to four times lower. This cost advantage is largely due to the flexibility offered by different S3 storage classes, available in most object storage services that follow the S3 protocol. For example, while Amazon S3 introduced well-known classes like Standard, Infrequent Access (IA), and Glacier, many S3-compatible alternatives now offer equivalent tiers. These include options for frequent retrieval, long-term data archiving, or cold storage, allowing businesses to align storage costs with data access frequency and retention needs. This tiered storage model is a key driver of cost optimization in modern cloud infrastructures.

Granular Access Control: S3 buckets allow you to configure access rights for each file with precision. You can determine exactly who can read, modify, or delete each file.

Encryption for Security: To ensure data security, S3 buckets offer the option to encrypt all or part of the content, which is especially important for storing sensitive information.

File Versioning: This feature allows you to easily revert to a previous version of a file at any time, a valuable asset for preventing data loss or correcting errors.

Object Locking: Some S3 providers offer an object locking feature that protects objects from deletion for a specified period, which is extremely useful for meeting regulatory requirements and safeguarding data against accidental or malicious deletion.

Automatic File Expiration: S3 buckets can be configured to automatically delete files after a set date or duration, helping to manage storage space efficiently and ensure obsolete or unnecessary data doesn’t accumulate.

Data Replication: S3 buckets are designed to support automatic data replication across multiple storage sites, increasing data resilience and reducing the risk of data loss in case of a site failure. These replication mechanisms can also be used to implement cross-region object replication, ensuring business continuity and compliance with geographic redundancy requirements.

Scalability: One of the main advantages of S3 object storage is its scalability. S3 buckets can store a nearly unlimited amount of data without being constrained by the capacity of a physical hard drive, meaning you’ll never run out of storage space.

A sovereign S3-compatible storage alternative to Amazon S3

If you’re looking for an alternative to Amazon S3, Leviia Object Storage deserves special attention. Leviia offers high-performance, secure object storage at a competitive price, up to three to four times cheaper than competitors. It’s a cost-effective solution, especially when compared to the substantial costs of Amazon S3 for large data volumes.

Additionally, with Leviia, your data is stored in data centers located in France, ensuring full compliance with European and French data protection regulations. By choosing Leviia, you make a decision that ensures both data sovereignty and security while reducing storage costs.

For more information on choosing an S3 storage solution, check out: https://www.leviia.com/en/blog/stockage-s3/

How to create, configure, and manage your S3 bucket

1/ Identification and Association with an S3 Bucket

Before creating and managing a bucket, it’s important to understand how buckets are associated with a specific identifier, consisting of two access keys: a public access key and a secret key. These function similarly to a username and password, authenticating your account when interacting with services.

Each S3 bucket you create is linked to your account’s identifier, which determines who can access the bucket and what actions users can perform (read, write, etc.). Many providers rely on the AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) model to define roles and access control lists (ACLs). Even in non-AWS S3-compatible environments, similar principles ensure granular access control and compliance with security best practices. Therefore, every operation on a bucket (adding data, reading, modifying, deleting) requires authentication with this key pair. The security of these keys is critical, as a compromise could allow a third party to access your buckets and data or perform actions on your account.

2/ Creating an S3 Bucket

The first step is to create a bucket, usually just a few clicks in your service provider’s user interface. You’ll need to choose a unique name for your bucket. Note that bucket names are globally unique within the provider’s namespace and your account.

3/ Configuring Security Settings

Once your bucket is created, you must define security settings, including access permissions and, optionally, encryption and data locking. For additional protection, some providers also support multi-factor authentication (MFA), adding another layer of security before allowing changes to sensitive permissions or deletions. Most object storage platforms also support bucket policies—JSON-based rules that define access behavior at the bucket level. These policies can be used to enforce read/write permissions, restrict access to IP ranges, or automate compliance controls.

4/ Managing Files

After setting up your bucket, you can start uploading files. Each object has a unique key (its name) that can be used to retrieve it. You can upload and manage files through the user interface, API, or command line, depending on your provider’s capabilities.

5/ Managing Versioning and Data Lifecycle

Many S3 service providers offer versioning and data lifecycle management features. Versioning allows you to keep multiple versions of an object in the same bucket. Lifecycle management lets you define data lifecycle policies that automatically move objects between storage classes—such as frequent access, infrequent access, or archival tiers—based on their usage. Many S3-compatible services support this feature to help optimize costs while meeting data archiving and compliance needs.

6/ Monitoring and Tracking

Most object storage providers offer tools to monitor your bucket’s usage and performance. These tools help you understand how your data is being used, identify potential issues, and optimize resource usage. While the S3 protocol is widely adopted, the specifics of configuring and managing a bucket may vary between providers. Always refer to your provider’s documentation for detailed instructions.

How to organize and find your files in S3-compatible storage

One of the strengths of object storage is its ability to handle large volumes of unstructured data. However, this can also pose challenges when you need to locate a specific file among thousands or millions of others. Fortunately, there are methods to navigate and find files efficiently in an S3 bucket.

Using Metadata: When you store an object in an S3 bucket, you can add metadata to describe it. For example, for a photo, metadata might include the location where it was taken, the date, or the camera used.

Organizing with Prefixes: The S3 protocol supports prefixes to help organize objects. A prefix is the first part of an object’s key. For example, for an object with the key “photos/vacations/photo1.jpg,” “photos” and “photos/vacations” are prefixes. Prefixes can create a logical organizational structure for your objects, similar to a folder hierarchy. For instance, you can group objects by project, date, or file type.

Using Third-Party Tools: Tools like Rclone are designed to manage S3 buckets, offering advanced search and organization features, such as tagging objects with custom keywords, searching based on specific criteria, or visualizing your bucket’s structure more intuitively. Regardless of the method, good organization from the start can save significant time and effort when retrieving specific files.

For more advanced use cases—such as object tagging, custom metadata filtering, or generating S3 Inventory reports—you can rely on third-party tools or native features offered by your storage provider.

How to integrate S3 buckets storage with backup, NAS, and cloud services

Another major advantage of object storage and services like Amazon S3 or Leviia Object Storage is their compatibility with a wide range of other services and solutions, enabling a highly customizable and efficient data storage and management environment. Here are some examples:

Backup Solutions: S3-compatible object storage is widely used for backup and restore operations thanks to its scalability, durability, and cost-effectiveness. Organizations rely on it for disaster recovery plans, long-term data retention, and quick restore capabilities across diverse workloads. Popular backup solutions are fully compatible with this storage technology:

• Veeam: A world-renowned backup solution, Veeam offers S3 integration to store backups directly in an S3 bucket, providing businesses with greater flexibility and scalability for backup and recovery strategies.
• Atempo: Another leading data backup provider, Atempo offers S3 compatibility, facilitating large-scale data backup and recovery.
• Integration with NAS Systems: Integrating an S3 bucket with a Network Attached Storage (NAS) system is another key benefit. NAS systems are widely used for file storage, archiving, and data backups. Systems like Synology and QNAP offer options to synchronize with S3-based cloud storage services, enabling regular, automated backups of stored data to an S3 bucket. This ensures redundant data backups and easy access from anywhere with an internet connection.
• Other Solutions: S3-compatible storage integrates easily with modern IT architectures—including lift-and-shift applications, big data analytics, and event notification systems—making it a powerful foundation for hybrid and multi-cloud environments. For running SQL queries on data stored in S3 buckets, you can use:
• Snowflake: A cloud-based data storage service that can load and query data stored in S3 buckets, executing SQL queries directly.
• Presto: An open-source distributed query system that runs SQL queries on various data types, including S3-stored data.
• Apache Drill: Another open-source SQL query system supporting multiple data types, including S3 data.
• Databricks: A data processing platform based on Apache Spark, allowing SQL queries on S3-stored data.

S3 storage pricing: cost comparison, fees, and optimization tips

One of the major advantages of S3 buckets is their flexible pricing model, typically based on the amount of data stored and transferred, as well as additional features like egress fees. This means you only pay for what you use.

However, not all S3 providers offer the same pricing. While services like Amazon S3 may seem attractive for their flexibility and features, their costs can quickly add up, especially for large data volumes.

This is where Leviia Object Storage stands out as a cost-optimized, sovereign alternative to traditional cloud storage services. Unlike providers that charge for data retrieval or transfer acceleration, Leviia offers a predictable pricing model with no hidden fees. Leviia is up to four times cheaper than Amazon and significantly more affordable than other tech giants (GAFAM). Compared to similar data storage services like Wasabi, Leviia offers equivalent pricing but distinguishes itself with data sovereignty. Unlike Backblaze or Wasabi, which are American companies, Leviia is a sovereign solution, complying with European data protection laws. Additionally, Leviia has no hidden or extra fees.

Ultimately, the combination of competitive pricing and data sovereignty makes Leviia Object Storage an attractive option for those seeking a cost-effective, secure, and compliant S3 storage solution.

Why S3 buckets are essential for modern data management

In summary, understanding the functionality and benefits of S3 buckets—whether for backups, archiving, or other storage needs—is key to optimizing large-scale data management. S3-compatible buckets are not only easy to use but also enable high availability, version control, and scalable storage across multiple availability zones—ideal for organizations needing performance, durability, and compliance.

We hope this article has provided a clear understanding of the efficiency and potential of S3 buckets. We’re here to discuss everything you need to know about S3 buckets and introduce you to Leviia Object Storage.

For more information about Leviia, feel free to contact us via the form on our website: https://www.leviia.com/contact-pro/