AWS S3 Transfer Acceleration

Amazon S3 Transfer Acceleration is a feature of Amazon S3 that helps to speed up the transfer of files across long distances by leveraging AWS’s globally distributed network of edge locations.

Here’s how it works:

1. Edge Location Use: When we enable S3 Transfer Acceleration on a bucket, data is first routed to the nearest AWS edge location (part of AWS’s CloudFront network), instead of going directly to the S3 bucket.
2. Optimized Path: From the edge location, the data is sent over AWS’s optimized network path to the destination S3 bucket in the AWS region. This provides a faster and more stable transfer than standard internet paths, especially for long-distance transfers.
3. Global Acceleration: This feature is particularly useful for uploads from remote locations or when transferring large files globally, as it reduces the time and potential bottlenecks that could occur over the public internet.

Key Benefits:

• Faster Data Transfers: Useful for large files or transfers across different continents.
• Seamless Integration: Requires no changes to our existing application logic beyond enabling it in the S3 console or API.
• Cost-Effective: We pay for the data transfer acceleration feature only when it provides benefits; otherwise, we’re billed as per regular S3 transfers.

It’s often used in scenarios like large content uploads, distributed data synchronization, and media transfers.