Look at S3 through a Storage Lens

Amazon has made it easier for customers to figure out how to reduce their S3 cloud object storage costs, with a new analytics dashboard.

AWS’s S3 Storage Lens enables users to get a customer-wide handle on multiple S3 buckets in multiple AWS regions. Prior to the launch of the service, users had to manage S3 buckets individually – a tall order for heavy users.

The interactive dashboard is located in the S3 console and enables admins to perform filtering and drill-down into metrics to show how and where S3 storage is used. Metrics are organised into categories like data protection and cost efficiency.

The utility includes point-in-time and rolled-up metrics, trend lines and recommendations. There are 29 usage and activity metrics and the dashboard aggregates data for an entire organisation, specific accounts, regions, buckets, or prefixes. All the Storage Lens data is accessible in the S3 Management Console or as raw data in an S3 bucket.

AWS Storage Lens

You can configure this dashboard or use AWS tools to create your own from scratch. 

S3 Storage Lens has two tiers. Free Metrics, contains 15 usage related metrics, is free of charge and automatically available for all S3 customers. The paid-for Advanced Metric plan includes all 29 usage and activity metrics with 15-month data retention, and contextual recommendations.

A Storage Lens video describes Storage Lens and how it works and a blog by AWS Principal Advocate Martin Beeby provides more detailed information. A product details webpage goes into greater depth.

S3 Storage Lens is available in all commercial AWS Regions. You can use it with the Amazon S3 API, CLI, or in the S3 Console.