Overview

• Block level storage volumes
• HA, Reliable
• Can be attached to any instance in the same AZ
• Persist independently from the life of the instance

Use cases

• Quick data access, long term data persistence
• Primary storage for file systems and databases
• Suitable for both
  • Database style random read and write
  • Throughput intensive read/writes

Encryption

• EBS volumes can be launched as Encrypted volumes
• Amazon EBS encryption used AWS Key Management Service master keys
• There is an option to use Customer Master Key for encryption

Performance

• Multiple EBS volumes can be attached to an instance subject to limit on number of EBS volumes available to AWS account
• Performance metrics such as bandwidth, throughput, latency and average queue length are available through AWS management console. These metrics are allowed by AWS CloudWatch.