Keeping cloud storage costs under control is a key concern for any organization. S3 Explorer helps by exposing the settings that influence your monthly bill. The most important of these is lifecycle policy management. By moving data to cheaper storage classes or deleting it when no longer needed, you can dramatically reduce what you pay AWS.
Open a bucket and head to the Versioning tab. Here you can create lifecycle rules with labels for Transition After, Transition Class and Expire After. Transitioning objects to Glacier after 30 or 60 days is a common practice. For temporary data, set an expiration period so S3 automatically deletes it.
Another strategy is to routinely scan for unused or duplicate objects. S3 Explorer’s search box lets you filter by prefix or pattern. Combine this with the Bulk Delete option to clean out large sets of data you no longer require.
If you upload large files that are rarely accessed, consider using the Glacier Flexible Retrieval class. Create a rule that transitions objects after a set number of days. While retrieval times are slower, the storage savings can be significant.
The click path for managing cost-related rules is: Sidebar → choose bucket → Inspector panel → Versioning tab → Add Rule. Each field in the rule editor has a brief description to help you pick the right values.
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