Data Lifecycle and Secure Deletion

Data is not meant to live forever. It is created, used actively, then aged into cheaper storage, and finally deleted when no longer needed.

Managing this lifecycle is a security practice: data you no longer keep cannot be breached, and minimizing retention shrinks both risk and cost.

S3 offers tiers from hot to cold: Standard for frequent access, Standard-IA (Infrequent Access), and the Glacier family for cheap, archival storage.

Moving data to the right class as it cools saves money, but archived data still needs the same encryption and access controls as active data.