What is the difference between Amazon S3 Glacier and S3 Standard storage?

The distinction between Amazon S3 Glacier and S3 Standard storage lies primarily in their intended use cases and performance characteristics. S3 Glacier is specifically designed for long-term archival storage of data that is accessed infrequently. It offers a much lower storage cost compared to other storage classes because it is optimized for data that doesn't require immediate access.

However, this comes with a trade-off in retrieval times. Retrieving data from S3 Glacier can take minutes to hours, depending on the retrieval option chosen, which is ideal for data that can tolerate such delays. This is in stark contrast to S3 Standard, which is intended for frequently accessed data, providing low-latency access and high throughput for applications needing real-time access to data.

In summary, the correct answer accurately reflects that S3 Glacier is designed for archival storage with longer retrieval times, making it the suitable option for organizations looking to store large amounts of infrequently accessed data at lower costs over time.