On-premises storage for a Learning Management System (LMS) may be expensive and complex, with costly hardware refresh cycles and data migrations necessitated by system changes. It is also difficult to gain insights since critical data is housed in distinct silos across several storage systems.
By integrating Cloud Storage into a Learning Management System, one can make adjustments as necessary and just use the storage needed in that moment, instead of waiting for the next hardware refresh. Moving to Amazon S3 keeps an LMS nimble and minimizes expenses by reducing over-provisioning, as well as providing infinite capacity and breaking down data silos, in order to derive insights from data.
An Amazon S3 bucket is a public cloud storage resource offered by Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) Simple Storage Service (S3), which is an object storage service. Amazon S3 buckets, which function similarly to file folders, hold objects made up of data and descriptive metadata. Amazon S3 bucket’s purpose is to make web-scale computing easy for developers. This service allows enterprises of all sizes and sectors to store massive volumes of data for a number of use cases such as websites, mobile apps, disaster recovery, and big data analytics. Let us explore some the benefits of integrating S3 Bucket into a Digital Learning Management System.
UNLIMITED STORAGE
The overall amount of data and the number of things that may be stored are limitless. Individual Amazon S3 objects can be as little as 0 bytes and as large as 5 terabytes. The maximum size of an item that may be uploaded in a single PUT command is 5 gigabytes. Learning Management systems can also consider using the Multipart Upload functionality of AWS, for assets greater than 100 megabytes.
A RELIABLE STORAGE SOLUTION
Amazon S3 provides any developer with access to the same highly scalable, highly accessible, fast, and low-cost data storage technology that Amazon employs to power its own worldwide network of websites. The S3 Standard storage class is designed for 99.99 percent availability. The S3 Standard-IA storage class, the S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class, and the S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval storage classes are designed for 99.9% availability. The S3 One Zone-IA storage class is designed for 99.5 percent availability, and the S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval and S3 Glacier Deep Archive classes are designed for 99.99 percent availability and a SLA of 99.9%. The Amazon S3 Service Level Agreement covers all of these storage types.
STORAGE MANAGEMENT & MONITORING
Amazon S3 has a number of services that can assist LMS systems in organizing and managing data in ways that support specific use cases, allow cost efficiencies, enforce security, and fulfil regulatory needs. Data is kept as objects in “buckets,” and a single item may be up to 5 terabytes in size. S3 capabilities include the ability to append metadata tags to objects, move and store data across S3 Storage Classes, configure and enforce data access controls, secure data from unauthorized users, run big data analytics, monitor data at the object and bucket levels, and view storage usage and activity trends across your organization. S3 Access Points or the bucket hostname can be used to access objects.
Amazon S3 also has tools that assist in maintaining data version control, preventing unintentional deletions, and replicating data to the same or separate AWS Regions. Users can simply save, retrieve, and restore every version of an item stored in Amazon S3 using S3 Versioning, allowing you to recover from unintentional user activities and application failures. Enable Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Delete on an S3 bucket to avoid inadvertent removals. If one attempt to delete an object from an MFA Delete-enabled bucket, they will be required to provide two forms of authentication: their AWS account credentials and the concatenation of a valid serial number, a space, and the six-digit code displayed on an approved authentication device, such as a hardware key fob or a Universal 2nd Factor (U2F) security key.
In addition to these management options, LMS administrators may monitor and regulate how their S3 resources are used by utilizing S3 features and other AWS services. They may tag S3 buckets to distribute expenses across several business dimensions) and then use AWS Cost Allocation Reports to analyze consumption and costs aggregated by bucket tags. Amazon CloudWatch may also be used to monitor the operational health of AWS resources and set billing alerts that are issued to users when anticipated charges exceed a user-defined threshold.
USER DEFINED ACCESS MANAGEMENT & SECURITY
Amazon S3 provides a variety of security mechanisms to prevent unauthorized individuals from accessing sensitive data. Authorized users can connect to S3 resources from their Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (Amazon VPC) and on-premises using VPC endpoints. For data uploads, Amazon S3 offers both server-side encryption (with three key management options) and client-side encryption. The S3 Inventory may be used to check the encryption state of a digital learning platform’s S3 assets.
S3 Block Public Access is a collection of security rules that prevents public access to S3 buckets and objects. An administrator can apply the S3 Block Public Access settings to all buckets within the LMS’s AWS account or to select S3 buckets with a few clicks in the Amazon S3 Management Console. When the settings are applied to an AWS account, all existing or new buckets and objects linked with that account inherit the restrictions on public access. S3 Block Public Access settings supersede other S3 access rights, allowing the account administrator to easily enforce a “no public access” policy regardless of how an item is added, a bucket is formed, or whether access restrictions are already in place. S3 Block Public Access restrictions are auditable, provide a layer of security, and make use of AWS Trusted Advisor bucket permission checks, AWS CloudTrail logs, and Amazon CloudWatch alerts. Block Public Access should be enabled for any accounts and buckets that you do not wish to be publicly visible.
S3 Object Ownership is a feature that disables Access Control Lists (ACLs), giving the bucket owner ownership of all objects and simplifying access control for data stored in S3. When you enable the S3 Object Ownership Bucket owner enforced setting, ACLs no longer effect rights for your bucket and its contents. All access control will be specified by resource-based policies, user policies, or a combination of the two. You may simply firewall your S3 data within your private network by using S3 Access Points that are confined to a Virtual Private Cloud (VPC). AWS Service Control Policies may also be used to mandate that any new S3 Access Point in an LMS be restricted to VPC-only access.
CONSISTENCY IN PERFORMANCE
Amazon S3 automatically provides robust read-after-write consistency to all applications without affecting speed or availability, without losing application geographic isolation, and at no additional expense. S3’s strong consistency simplifies the transfer of on-premises analytics workloads by eliminating the need for application modifications, and it decreases costs by eliminating the requirement for additional infrastructure to support strong consistency. Any S3 storage request is highly consistent. Following a successful write of a new object or an edit of an existing object, any subsequent read request obtains the object’s most recent version. S3 also supports excellent consistency for list operations, so you can quickly execute a listing of the items in a bucket with any changes reflected after a write.
For cloud object storage, Amazon S3 offers best in class performance. Amazon S3 enables parallel queries, which means S3 performance can be improved by the computing cluster factor without modifying the LMS platform. A performance scales per prefix, you may use as many prefixes as necessary in parallel to reach the desired throughput. There are no restrictions on the number of prefixes that can be used. Amazon S3 performance allows for at least 3,500 requests per second for data addition and 5,500 requests per second for data retrieval. Each S3 prefix can accommodate these request rates, making it simple to greatly boost speed.
ATTRACTIVE PRICING OPTIONS
You just pay for what you use. There is no such thing as a minimum fee. When storing and managing your data, there are six Amazon S3 cost components to consider: Storage pricing, request and data retrieval pricing, data transfer and transfer acceleration pricing, data management and analytics pricing, replication pricing, and the Price to process data with S3 Object Lambda.
You are charged for the storage of things in your S3 buckets. The rate you pay is determined by the size of your objects, the length of time they were stored during the month, and the storage class—S3 Standard, S3 Intelligent-Tiering, S3 Standard-Infrequent Access, S3 One Zone-Infrequent Access, S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval, S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval (Formerly S3 Glacier), and S3 Glacier Deep Archive. To monitor access patterns and transfer items between access tiers, you pay a monthly monitoring and automation fee per object stored in the S3 Intelligent-Tiering storage class. There are no retrieval costs in S3 Intelligent-Tiering, and no extra Tiering charges apply when items are transferred across access levels.
Using the price calculator, one can get a cost estimate for Amazon S3 that is tailored to specific business requirements of a LMS. One can also use the AWS Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) calculator to compare the cost of running LMS applications on-premises or in a colocation environment to AWS.
CONCLUSION
Amazon S3 provides a variety of storage classes that can be specifically leveraged for digital Learning Management Systems. It supports several data access levels at varying speeds. By selecting an appropriate storage class for a S3 cost optimization plan, you may employ the performance and capacity needed to build highly scalable LMS platform for virtually seamless use in the most cost-effective way possible.
The PACIFYCA Learning Management System, by ATC ONLINE, is one of the best in its class due to its open architecture and ease of use. The integration of our digital solutions with Amazon Web Services S3 bucket ensures a comprehensive data & storage management. We not only provide full-service consultation and customization of our e-learning solutions, but we also ensure a successful on-site implementation. For more information, please visit us at: https://atconline.biz/products/e-learning-management/
