A developer is creating a video search application for a global company. The video files have an average size of 2.5 TB. The video storage system must provide instant access to the video files for the

EFS Standard is a network file system designed for compute workloads; it lacks the lifecycle tiering needed to cost-effectively archive 2.5 TB video files after 90 days.

S3 Glacier Deep Archive is the cheapest tier but has retrieval times of 12+ hours, making it unsuitable for the first 90 days when instant access is required.

EBS volumes are attached block storage for EC2 instances; they are expensive, not serverless-friendly, and have no built-in archival lifecycle management.

Uploading to S3 and using S3 Glacier Instant Retrieval for the first 90 days provides millisecond access during the active period. After 90 days, a lifecycle rule can transition objects to S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval or Deep Archive, which allows retrieval times exceeding 10 minutes and dramatically reduces storage costs for infrequently accessed large files.