AWS Introduces S3 Files, Bringing File System Access to S3 Buckets

AWS has launched S3 Files, a new feature that lets users mount an Amazon S3 bucket and interact with its contents through a standard file system interface. Under the hood, it uses Amazon EFS to deliver ~1ms latencies for active data, supports NFS close-to-open consistency, and enables concurrent access from multiple compute resources. Changes are synced back to S3 roughly every 60 seconds as a single PUT, with S3 acting as the source of truth in conflict scenarios. Inactive file data is evicted from the filesystem after 30 days but remains in S3. Community reaction is mixed — some appreciate the simpler developer experience, while others raise concerns about EFS-level pricing. Current limitations include mandatory S3 versioning, no IaC support at launch, and a non-obvious IAM setup.