What is the purpose of Amazon Simple Storage Service Glacier?

The purpose of Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) Glacier is to provide a low-cost cloud storage solution specifically designed for data archiving and long-term backup. Organizations often accumulate large volumes of data that they need to retain for compliance, historical analysis, or infrequent access, but that do not require quick retrieval. S3 Glacier addresses this need by offering a storage option that is significantly more economical than standard storage services like S3, making it ideal for infrequently accessed data.

The service is optimized for durability and security, ensuring that archived data remains protected over time. Users can store data in a way that balances cost and accessibility, since while retrieval times may vary (from minutes to hours depending on the retrieval option chosen), the savings on storage costs are substantial compared to traditional storage solutions.

In contrast, the other options relate to different functionalities within cloud services. For example, real-time data processing is better served by different tools or services like Amazon Kinesis, while content delivery and managing EC2 instances refer to different aspects of cloud functionality that do not fit the primary goal of Glacier.