EBS snapshots are a backup feature provided by Amazon Web Services (AWS) for Elastic Block Store (EBS) volumes. An EBS snapshot is a point-in-time copy of an EBS volume, which allows you to create a backup of your data and store it on Amazon S3.
EBS snapshots are incremental, which means that only the changes made to the EBS volume since the last snapshot are saved. This makes the process faster and more efficient, as only the changed blocks need to be transferred to Amazon S3.
Here are some key features and benefits of EBS snapshots:
- Easy to create and manage: You can create EBS snapshots using the AWS Management Console, command line interface, or API. You can also automate the snapshot process using AWS Lambda or other AWS services.
- Cost-effective: EBS snapshots are a cost-effective way to backup your data as you only pay for the storage space used by the snapshot.
- Highly available: EBS snapshots are stored in Amazon S3, which is designed to provide high availability and durability.
- Fast recovery: EBS snapshots can be used to restore data to a new EBS volume or an existing one, which makes the recovery process fast and easy.
- Flexible: You can use EBS snapshots to create multiple copies of your data, move data across regions, or share data with other AWS accounts.
Overall, EBS snapshots are a powerful and flexible backup feature that can help you protect your data and ensure business continuity.