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What Is An EBS Volume?

An Elastic Block Storage (EBS) Volume hosts virtual data in segments. It’s like a storage disk with the ability to contain various sizes of data. These virtual storage devices usually replicate within one AWS region to increase their availability. EBS volumes provide additional storage for EC2 instances, similar to a hard drive. Like physical hard disks, it’s critical to manage EBS volumes as they affect your AWS bill. Because of volatile cloud storage, EBS volumes provide a suitable alternative to permanent and robust storage.

What Are EBS Volume Types?

Various cloud requirements demand various disk sizes. EBS volume categories fill the need of various cloud use cases. You compute their efficiency in Input-Output operation per second (IOPS.)

EBS Volume

Recommended Use-Case

General Purpose SSD

Cloud users can utilize them when booting their systems, creating virtual machines, and storing medium-size databases. It’s a good cloud space for development and testing operations.

Provisioned IOPS SSD

Since the General Purpose SSD can’t perform beyond 3,000 IOPS, Provisioned IOPS SSD performs up to 10,000 IOPS per volume. As a result, this EBS volume can sustain important cloud operations without disruptions. It can store large amounts of databases.

Magnetic Storage volume

Use the magnetic storage volume for passive operations. Keep all nonessential workloads in magnetic storage. The average performance is 100 IOPS per volume.

Benefits of EBS Volumes Over Other Storage Alternatives

  1. Flexibility in Performance: Because of various kinds of EBS volumes, it’s possible to customize them to meet the use case of every user. A magnetic volume can store applications accessed occasionally. As a result, cloud users don’t have to pay for a high-performance volume when they need temporary storage. Each EBS volume has a specific use case.
  2. Backs Up Data Faster: Local backup processes often slow down the speed of your infrastructure. With EBS volumes, however, there’s no local computer involved. As a result, backup operations can go on without slowing down other applications. Zipping large back files is also faster with EBS volumes.
  3. EBS Volumes Are Secure: For reliability, EBS volumes replicate within the same AWS zone. This ensures the volumes are available when needed. The encryption of all cloud volumes and backup processes adds an extra layer of security within the cloud. Users can also define access policies for each EBS volume.
  4. Reliability: Users can rely on EBS volumes for important operations. EBS volumes have high-performance features to help execute cloud operations, whether migrating sensitive data or keeping vast databases.
  5. 5. Scalability: In an on-premises environment, scaling involves buying external hard disks after the internal ones deplete. As a result, there’s less efficiency and poor file management. But you can scale EBS volumes while maintaining the performance of original applications.

Sometimes, it’s challenging to pick an EBS volume that exactly suits your needs. As a result, most companies end up overpaying for their EBS volumes. However, software, such as nOps, can help you detect when you’re overspending on your virtual storage disks. The blog post Overspending on Amazon EBS explains how to cut costs on your EBS volumes.

 

Related Topics:

Missing Snapshots For EBS Volumes

Delete Unattached & Unused AWS EBS Volumes

Encrypt EBS Volumes