Amazon boosts S3 storage size to 5TB

Amazon said its storage users could do more, with more

Amazon has increased the maximum size for files stored in its S3 hosting systems, in a move which will appeal to customers wanting to store high resolution video content and scientific or medical data.

The firm said that in reaction to a need for more storage for its customers, it was dramatically increasing possible file sizes, and threw out a challenge to users to upload a file 5TB in size, which it said was the largest size possible.

In a blog post, the firm said that the increased file sizes would make it easier for users to store the information, documents or data that they need in one place, and without having to break it down into chunks.

“A number of our customers want to store very large files in Amazon S3 – scientific or medical data, high-resolution video content, backup files and so forth. Until now, they have had to store and reference the files as separate chunks of 5GB or less,” it said.

“So, when a customer wanted to access a large file or share it with others, they would either have to use several URIs in Amazon S3 or stitch the file back together using an intermediate server or within an application.”

This is no longer the case, and Amazon said that from now S3 objects could range in size from a tiny 1B through to 5TB, adding that this would not have any negative impact on administration or system management.

“Now customers can store extremely large files as single objects, which greatly simplifies their storage experience. Amazon S3 does the bookkeeping behind the scenes for our customers, so you can now get that large object just like you would any other Amazon S3 object.”

Amazon said the increase in size could lead to increases in research and development, also making it easier for firms to expand and for systems to scale.