Lifecycle policies are step one of S3 cost optimization. The other ten levers are where the real savings hide.
The 11 Levers
- 01Lifecycle policies (Standard → IA → Glacier IR → Glacier Deep)
Step one. Every account should have these by default.
- 02Intelligent-Tiering for unpredictable access patterns
Particularly effective on data lakes.
- 03Object Lock + Glacier Deep Archive for compliance retention
1/24th the cost of Standard.
- 04Multipart upload cleanup
Failed uploads sit unbilled-but-billed. Clean weekly.
- 05Versioning audit
Versioning enabled on log buckets is a six-figure mistake.
- 06Compression at write time
zstd or gzip on JSON/CSV reduces both storage and egress.
- 07Use S3 Express One Zone for transient hot workloads
Co-locate compute and storage; eliminates GET/PUT overhead.
- 08VPC endpoint to eliminate NAT Gateway egress
S3 GET via NAT is $0.045/GB. S3 GET via VPC endpoint is $0.
- 09CloudFront in front of public assets
$0.085/GB egress vs $0.04/GB at higher tiers.
- 10Storage Lens recommendations
The free tier surfaces 80% of opportunities.
- 11Inventory + Athena audit
For accounts > 1PB, run a quarterly audit query.
The Lifecycle Policy We Default To
{
"Rules": [
{
"ID": "ohveda-default",
"Status": "Enabled",
"Filter": {},
"Transitions": [
{ "Days": 30, "StorageClass": "STANDARD_IA" },
{ "Days": 90, "StorageClass": "GLACIER_IR" },
{ "Days": 365, "StorageClass": "DEEP_ARCHIVE" }
],
"AbortIncompleteMultipartUpload": { "DaysAfterInitiation": 7 },
"NoncurrentVersionExpiration": { "NoncurrentDays": 30 }
}
]
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