Understanding storage tiers - AWS HealthImaging

Understanding storage tiers

AWS HealthImaging uses intelligent tiering for automatic clinical lifecycle management. This results in compelling performance and price for both new or active data and long-term archival data with zero friction. HealthImaging bills storage per GB/month using the following tiers.

  • Frequent Access Tier – A tier for frequently accessed data.

  • Archive Instant Access Tier – A tier for archived data.

Note

There is not a performance difference between the Frequent Access and Archive Instant Access tiers. Intelligent tiering is applied to specific image set API actions. Intelligent tiering does not recognize data store, import, and tagging API actions. Movement between the tiers is automatic based on API usage and is explained in the following section.

How does tier movement work?

  • After import, image sets start in Frequent Access Tier.

  • After 30 consecutive days of no touches, image sets automatically move to Archive Instant Access Tier.

  • Image sets in Archive Instant Access Tier move back to Frequent Access Tier only after being touched.

The following graph provides an overview of the HealthImaging intelligent tiering process.

Diagram showing how HealthImaging moves image sets between Frequent Access and Archive Instant Access tiers for storage and billing purposes.

What is considered a touch?

A touch is a specific API access via the AWS Management Console, AWS CLI, or AWS SDKs and occurs when:

  1. A new image set is created (StartDICOMImportJob or CopyImageSet)

  2. An image set is updated (UpdateImageSetMetadata or CopyImageSet)

  3. An image set's associated metadata or image frame (pixel data) is read (GetImageSetMetaData or GetImageFrame)

The following HealthImaging API actions result in touches and move image sets from Archive Instant Access Tier to Frequent Access Tier.

  • StartDICOMImportJob

  • GetImageSetMetadata

  • GetImageFrame

  • CopyImageSet

  • UpdateImageSetMetadata

    Note

    Although image frames (pixel data) can't be deleted using the UpdateImageSetMetadata action, they are still counted for billing purposes.

The following HealthImaging API actions do not result in touches. Therefore, they do not move image sets from Archive Instant Access Tier to Frequent Access Tier.

  • CreateDatastore

  • GetDatastore

  • ListDatastores

  • DeleteDatastore

  • GetDICOMImportJob

  • ListDICOMImportJobs

  • SearchImageSets

  • GetImageSet

  • ListImageSetVersions

  • DeleteImageSet

  • TagResource

  • ListTagsForResource

  • UntagResource