Optimize long-term video storage prices with Amazon Kinesis Video Streams heat storage tier

Introduction

Amazon Kinesis Video Streams supplies highly effective options for cloud-based video administration in bodily safety and surveillance organizations. Whereas organizations want steady recording capabilities, conventional storage approaches typically result in elevated prices. Kinesis Video Streams excels at real-time video administration and short-term storage, serving enterprise deployments with in depth digital camera networks. Now, the progressive Kinesis Video Streams heat storage function enhances these capabilities, delivering cost-efficient options for long-term video retention, and enabling organizations to optimize their storage methods.

On this publish, we present how by successfully utilizing the newly launched Kinesis Video Streams heat storage function, you’ll be able to construct a way more cost-efficient resolution for long-term video retention whereas sustaining the efficiency and accessibility your operations require.

What did we launch?

On November twenty sixth, 2025, Amazon Kinesis Video Streams added a brand new heat storage tier, delivering cost-effective storage for prolonged media retention. The usual Kinesis Video Streams storage tier (now designated as the recent tier) stays optimized for real-time information entry and short-term storage. The brand new heat tier permits long-term media retention with sub-second entry latency at lowered storage prices.

Buyer advantages

Whereas Amazon Kinesis Video Streams sizzling storage excels at real-time streaming, regulatory compliance typically requires prolonged retention durations, making it pricey for bodily safety and enterprise video surveillance prospects. Prospects that usually used Kinesis Video Streams sizzling tier for streaming however then moved information to different cost-efficient storage can now preserve media in Kinesis Video Streams’ heat tier with out incurring a value penalty. This brings a number of benefits: (a) Prospects can keep easier architectures with out managing information migration, scale back their operational overhead, and preserve their information readily accessible throughout the Kinesis Video Streams ecosystem. (b) Bigger datasets stay in Kinesis Video Streams, prospects profit from extra full historic information and fewer fragmentation throughout storage methods. This permits enhanced analytics capabilities by simpler processing of steady information streams, higher temporal evaluation potential, and streamlined ML/AI mannequin coaching. As well as, ingestion into Kinesis Video Streams heat storage tier is priced per persevered fragment rely. Which means builders management prices by adjusting fragment dimension – bigger fragments scale back ingestion prices, whereas smaller fragments ship decrease latency. This flexibility lets builders optimize their particular use instances.

Structure

Amazon Kinesis Video Streams tiered storage structure supplies a seamless integration between real-time streaming capabilities and cost-optimized long-term storage. The structure consists of two elements: Video ingestion, that features IoT gadgets and cameras stream video information to KVS endpoints, and the Storage tier. The storage tier choice relies on the stream’s configuration, and fragments are saved in both sizzling or heat tier.

Key advantages of this structure are:

• Unified API: Identical Amazon Kinesis Video Streams APIs work throughout each storage tiers
• Seamless playback: Purposes can retrieve video no matter storage tier
• Dynamic configuration: Storage tiers will be modified with out service interruption
• Automated lifecycle: Constructed-in insurance policies handle information transitions and retention

Price issues

The desk beneath reveals Amazon Kinesis Video Streams’ sizzling and heat tier pricing construction for US East (N. Virginia) area. Observe that heat tier storage costs have a big discount whereas consumption prices stay constant throughout each tiers. Heat ingestion is priced primarily based on fragment rely somewhat than per GB, which supplies predictable price administration for long-term retention eventualities. Heat tier storage comes with a 30-day minimal retention interval, that means AWS prices prospects for at the very least 30 days even in the event that they delete the information earlier.

Kinesis Video Streams is constructed on Amazon Easy Storage Service (Amazon S3)’s information retailer, making certain your video information is saved with excessive sturdiness and availability. Nevertheless, the frequency of accessing saved video information can range considerably throughout totally different use instances. For instance, contemplate a situation the place CCTV uncooked information should be retained for 30 days for safety compliance functions. If no particular occasions happen, the frequency and segments of information that have to be reviewed will lower over time. In such conditions, heat tier performance lets you scale back storage prices whereas sustaining the identical sturdiness and availability of storage.

Amazon Kinesis Video Streams’ heat tier is constructed on Amazon S3 Commonplace-Rare Entry (S3 Commonplace-IA) to offer the next advantages:

• As much as 67% price discount: Important price financial savings in comparison with commonplace Amazon Kinesis Video Streams storage
• Identical sturdiness and availability: 99.999999999% sturdiness and 99.9% availability assure
• Seamless integration: Helps compatibility with present Amazon Kinesis Video Streams workflows and APIs
• Automated lifecycle administration: Automated information administration by configurable insurance policies

Now let’s take a look at 3 ways to optimize prices utilizing the nice and cozy tier.

1. Storage duration-based price optimization

Heat tier is designed for price optimization in use instances requiring long-term storage. Whereas the nice and cozy tier affords comparatively decrease storage prices, it requires a minimal retention interval of 30 days.

Due to this fact, to be used instances requiring solely short-term storage, sizzling tier could also be cheaper.

Actual-world price evaluation instance: Let’s study 1,000 CCTV cameras working 8 hours each day:

• Ingestion interval: 30 days
• Bitrate: 4Mbps
• Fragment period: 2 seconds
• AWS Area: us-east-1 area

Price comparability primarily based on retention interval

Key findings: As seen above, below the identical fragment size, heat tier price advantages are increased for longer retention durations, usually ranging from 30 days.

2. Fragment length-based price optimization

One other progressive function of heat tier is fragment-based billing as an alternative of the standard GB-based billing of sizzling tier. This billing method permits for important discount in ingestion prices by adjusting fragment size.

The desk beneath reveals how advantages of heat tier improve in comparison with sizzling tier when the fragment size will increase. That is for 30-day retention.

Key findings: Below the identical retention interval, heat tier advantages are increased for longer fragment lengths. The chart beneath can help as determination chart. For 30-day retention, heat tier breaks even at fragment size of 1.06 sec, i.e. whole price is cheaper in heat tier vs sizzling tier for fragment lengths longer than 1.06 sec. For 60-day retention, that break even occurs at 0.68 sec.

3. Understanding storage price variations by digital camera decision

The nice and cozy tier pricing primarily based on fragment rely mannequin brings price benefits for cameras with increased bitrates. See comparability in desk beneath for 1,000 digital camera deployment over 30 days with 5-second fragments.

Key findings:

• Greater bitrates yield larger financial savings: 4 Mbps streams obtain 48% price discount, whereas 1Mbps streams see 9% financial savings
• Constant ingestion price benefit: Heat tier ingestion stays at $1,687.50 no matter bitrate, whereas sizzling tier prices scale linearly with information quantity
• Storage price scaling: Heat tier storage prices scale proportionally with bitrate, however at considerably decrease charges than sizzling tier
• Break-even evaluation: All bitrate eventualities demonstrated substantial price advantages when utilizing Heat tier for prolonged retention durations

This fragment-based pricing mannequin permits considerably cheaper storage and processing of high-resolution video content material with bigger information volumes. The upper the video high quality and bitrate, the extra pronounced the price benefits turn into when using heat tier storage.

Storage tier settings

The storage interval settings for present streams will be simply up to date, and the settings are instantly utilized to fragments collected after the replace.Beneath is the AWS CLI command for updating or making a stream in heat tier storage in Amazon Kinesis Video Streams.

Replace storage configuration:

In case you have an present stream in sizzling tier, you’ll be able to replace the stream settings to heat tier as follows.

```bash 
STREAM_INFO=$(aws kinesisvideo describe-stream 
--stream-name "$STREAM_NAME" 
--region $REGION)

CURRENT_VERSION=$(echo "$STREAM_INFO" | jq -r '.StreamInfo.Model')
aws kinesisvideo update-stream-storage-configuration 
--stream-name "$STREAM_NAME" 
--current-version "$CURRENT_VERSION" 
--stream-storage-configuration DefaultStorageTier="WARM" 
--region $REGION
```

Create stream with heat tier:

You’ll be able to create a brand new heat tier stream utilizing the next command.

```bash
aws kinesisvideo create-stream 
--stream-name $STREAM_NAME 
--media-type "video/h264" 
--data-retention-in-hours 720 
--stream-storage-configuration '{
"DefaultStorageTier": "WARM"
}' 
--region $REGION
```

The storage interval settings for created streams will be simply modified, and the settings are instantly utilized to fragments collected after the change. Stream playback stays uninterrupted even when storage configuration modifications are utilized.

Cleansing up

To keep away from ongoing prices, make sure that to delete the check streams you created throughout this walkthrough. Do not forget that deleting a stream completely removes all saved video information, whatever the storage tier configuration.

Delete the stream:

```bash
STREAM_INFO=$(aws kinesisvideo describe-stream 
--stream-name "$STREAM_NAME" 
--region $REGION)

STREAM_ARN=$(echo "$STREAM_INFO" | jq -r '.StreamInfo.StreamARN')
CURRENT_VERSION=$(echo "$STREAM_INFO" | jq -r '.StreamInfo.Model')

aws kinesisvideo delete-stream 
--stream-arn "$STREAM_ARN" 
--current-version "$CURRENT_VERSION" 
--region $REGION
```

Essential notes:

• Stream deletion is irreversible and removes all related video information
• Each Sizzling and Heat tier information will probably be completely deleted
• Guarantee you have got backed up any essential video information earlier than deletion
• The deletion course of might take a couple of minutes to finish

Conclusion

Amazon Kinesis Video Streams’ tiered storage functionality delivers a cheap method for managing video information. By this function organizations can dramatically scale back storage prices whereas sustaining operational excellence. These prices will be managed by controlling three variables: fragment size, retention interval, and determination bitrate. (a) Below the identical fragment size, heat tier price advantages are increased for longer retention durations, usually ranging from 30 days; (b) below the identical retention interval, heat tier advantages are increased for longer fragment lengths; (c) below the identical fragment size and retention interval, heat tier price advantages are increased because the bitrates improve.

The important thing to profitable implementation lies in precisely understanding your group’s particular entry patterns, retention necessities, and value optimization objectives. Begin with pilot implementation on non-critical streams, monitor outcomes, and progressively develop to your total video infrastructure. Kinesis Video Streams tiered storage will not be merely a value discount device. It’s a strategic enabler that makes sustainable development of video-enabled IoT purposes economically viable.

Subsequent steps

Are you able to optimize prices on your video resolution with Kinesis Video Streams tiered storage? Right here’s your path ahead:

In regards to the authors

Andre Sacaguti Andre Sacaguti is a Sr. Product Supervisor at AWS, engaged on Kinesis Video Streams. He helps organizations flip video information into actionable insights, exploring how AI brokers could make streaming video smarter and extra interactive. Earlier than becoming a member of AWS, Andre constructed and launched IoT merchandise at T-Cell and Qualcomm, serving to linked gadgets work smarter and extra securely.

Jinseon Lee Jinseon Lee is a Senior IoT GTM Options Architect specializing in IoT and Robotics at AWS APJ. With over 12 years of expertise in know-how and software program growth, Jinseon has labored in various roles serving to shoppers design and implement optimum cloud architectures.