βœ… Day 9 of My Cloud Journey ☁ – Dive into Amazon S3 πŸͺ£

Pratik DasPratik Das
3 min read

Today, I explored Amazon S3, the backbone of AWS’s storage services and one of the most powerful tools in cloud computing. I also hosted a static portfolio website directly from an S3 bucket as part of my hands-on learning! πŸš€


πŸ”Ή What is Amazon S3?

Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is AWS’s object storage solution designed for scalability, availability, security, and performance. It's used to store and retrieve any amount of data, at any time, from anywhere on the web.

It’s commonly used for:

  • Hosting websites

  • Storing backup and archive data

  • Logging and analytics

  • Serving static assets (images, CSS, JS)

  • Supporting data lakes and big data workloads


🧠 Core Concepts in S3

ConceptDescription
πŸͺ£ BucketsTop-level containers in S3; each object is stored in a bucket
πŸ“„ ObjectsFiles (data + metadata) stored in buckets
πŸ”‘ KeysUnique names assigned to objects
πŸ“¦ Storage ClassesOptimize for performance/cost (Standard, IA, Glacier)
πŸŒ€ VersioningRetain multiple versions of an object
πŸ” Lifecycle RulesAutomate file transition or deletion
πŸ”’ Bucket PoliciesJSON rules to control access to entire buckets

πŸ› οΈ What I Did Today

Here’s what I practiced:

  1. Created an S3 Bucket from the AWS Console

  2. Uploaded files: images, HTML pages, logs

  3. Enabled Versioning – tested overwriting files

  4. Configured Bucket Policies & public access

  5. Generated Pre-signed URLs to share objects securely

  6. Explored CloudFront integration for CDN delivery


🌐 Project: Hosting a Static Website on S3

As a hands-on activity, I hosted my static portfolio website on an S3 bucket with public access and website configuration enabled. It was an amazing experience to see my site live without any server setup!

πŸ”— Check it out on LinkedIn πŸ‘‰
Static Website Hosting on S3 – My LinkedIn Project Post

πŸ‘£ Steps I Followed:

  • Created and named my S3 bucket

  • Uploaded HTML/CSS files

  • Enabled "Static Website Hosting" in bucket properties

  • Configured bucket policy for public read access

  • Accessed my portfolio using the S3 website endpoint

πŸ’‘Tip: Remember to add the correct bucket policy to allow public access for static site hosting. Also, avoid enabling public access globally β€” keep it scoped to only what’s needed.


βœ… Real-World Use Cases for Amazon S3

  • Hosting static websites

  • Cloud-native app file storage

  • Storing ML datasets for model training

  • Mobile app content delivery (images/videos)

  • IoT sensor logs and archives


πŸ” Quick Security Tips

  • βœ… Use IAM policies or bucket policies to manage access

  • 🚫 Block public access unless absolutely required (like for static sites)

  • πŸ” Enable encryption (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS)

  • πŸ“‹ Monitor access logs using S3 logging or CloudTrail

In conclusion, my exploration of Amazon S3 has been an enlightening journey into the world of cloud storage. By understanding its core concepts and practical applications, I've gained valuable insights into how S3 can be leveraged for various real-world use cases, from hosting static websites to supporting big data workloads. The hands-on experience of hosting a static portfolio website on S3 has reinforced the power and flexibility of cloud solutions. As I continue my cloud journey, I look forward to diving deeper into AWS services, enhancing my skills, and applying this knowledge to future projects.


πŸš€ What’s Next?

Tomorrow on Day 10, I’ll dive into AWS CLI for S3 β€” performing tasks from the terminal, automating uploads/downloads, and integrating S3 with EC2 programmatically.


πŸ”– Tags:

#Day9 #30DaysOfCloud #AWS #S3 #StaticWebsite #CloudStorage #DevOps #Hashnode #LearnInPublic #AWSBeginner #TruptiMane #CloudJourney #AmazonS3 #WebHosting #CloudProjects #PublicLearning

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Pratik Das
Pratik Das