Amazon S3 buckets often store numerous small files, leading to significant costs associated with frequent requests, especially for use cases such as log storage for Athena queries. By consolidating these small files into larger, logically grouped files, this Finder identifies opportunities to reduce the number of billable requests and optimize S3 costs while maintaining data accessibility and integrity.

Contents

Overview

Problem Statement

Amazon S3 buckets can accumulate large numbers of small files over time, especially in data lake or log storage scenarios. Each of these small files generates individual API requests when accessed, resulting in significant request costs that can exceed the actual storage costs by an order of magnitude. This inefficiency is particularly noticeable in analytics workloads such as Athena queries that need to scan many small files.

Solution Impact

By identifying S3 buckets with high request costs relative to storage costs and recommending file consolidation strategies, this CloudFix feature can help organizations reduce S3 request costs by up to 90%. File consolidation not only lowers operational expenses but can also improve query performance in analytics workloads.

AWS Services Affected

Amazon S3
Amazon S3

How It Works

Finder Component

The S3 File Consolidation Finder analyzes your S3 usage patterns to identify buckets that would benefit from file consolidation:

  1. Bucket Analysis: Scans S3 buckets to analyze metrics such as number of objects, average object size, and request counts.
  2. Cost Comparison: Identifies buckets where the cost of “GetObject” requests significantly exceeds storage costs (e.g., where request costs are 10x storage costs).
  3. Usage Validation: Verifies bucket existence and checks for AWS Glue table associations to ensure safe optimization.
  4. Savings Estimation: Calculates potential cost savings based on simulated impacts of file consolidation.

Fixer Component

This feature is recommendation-only. CloudFix provides detailed reports and suggestions but does not automatically implement file consolidation:

  1. Recommendation Generation: Creates actionable recommendations for consolidating small files within identified buckets.
  2. Detailed Reporting: Provides a comprehensive report on eligible buckets, potential savings, and recommended consolidation strategies.
  3. Implementation Guidance: Includes a URL link to the S3 console for easy access to buckets requiring optimization.
  4. Manual Implementation: Users must perform the actual file consolidation manually or through external tools such as AWS Glue.

FAQ

Is it possible to roll back once CloudFix implements the fixer?

Rollback is not applicable as the feature only identifies opportunities and provides recommendations. Users control the implementation of file consolidation.

Can CloudFix implement the fix automatically once I accept the recommendation?

No, this feature is recommendation-only. Implementation requires manual execution by the user or an external automated process.

Does the fix require downtime?

No downtime is required for identifying and recommending file consolidation. The actual implementation may require careful planning to avoid disrupting dependent workloads.

What typical savings can I expect?

Up to 90% of “GetObject” request costs can be saved for eligible buckets by consolidating small files into larger, more efficient objects.

How do I implement the file consolidation recommendations?

You can implement file consolidation using AWS Glue jobs, Lambda functions, or other ETL processes to combine small files into larger objects according to logical groupings (e.g., by date, customer, or data type).