Missing Intelligent-Tiering on EFS Lifecycle Policy

Charles Haile

Service Category

Storage

Cloud Provider

AWS

Service Name

AWS EFS

Inefficiency Type

Suboptimal Lifecycle Configuration

Explanation

EFS offers lifecycle policies that transition files from the Standard tier to Infrequent Access (IA) based on inactivity, significantly reducing storage costs for cold data. When this feature is not enabled, infrequently accessed files remain in the more expensive Standard tier indefinitely. This often occurs when the file system is initially provisioned for performance but long-term access patterns are not reevaluated.

Relevant Billing Model

Billed per GB-month based on storage class (e.g., Standard, Infrequent Access); access and metadata requests may incur additional charges

Detection

Review if lifecycle management is disabled or not set to transition files after an appropriate period of inactivity
Evaluate the proportion of files that are infrequently accessed yet stored in the Standard tier
Check whether the file system is used by workloads with predictable cold data patterns (e.g., logs, archive, ML input files)
Determine if storage costs are dominated by data that has not been accessed in weeks or months
Confirm whether business requirements permit longer access latencies for cold data

Remediation

Enable EFS lifecycle management with a transition period (e.g., 7, 14, 30 days) aligned to actual data access patterns
Monitor and periodically review access logs or file activity metrics to refine lifecycle timing
If access latency is not a concern, consider more aggressive transitions to IA for archival-type data

Relevant Documentation

AWS EFS Lifecycle Management

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