Self-contained EC2 AMI of the S4 transparent S3 compression gateway with NVIDIA nvCOMP GPU codecs preinstalled. Launch on a GPU instance (g4dn / g5 / g6), point your S3 clients at it, and cut S3 storage bytes 50-80 percent for compressible data with zero application changes.
S4 is a drop-in S3-compatible gateway that transparently compresses every object on the way to your S3 bucket. This AMI bundles everything for EC2: Amazon Linux 2023, the NVIDIA driver, the container runtime, and the GPU build of S4 (NVIDIA nvCOMP Bitcomp / zstd / GDeflate) preinstalled as a systemd service. No setup of CUDA, drivers, or nvCOMP is required.
On a GPU instance (g4dn, g5, g6) S4 routes integer and columnar data (Parquet, ORC, postings, time-series) to nvCOMP GPU codecs and text or log data to CPU zstd, choosing per object. Already-compressed inputs pass through untouched.
No application changes: same S3 wire protocol, same SigV4 authentication, same SDK calls. You only change the endpoint URL. Range GET requests stay fast through a sidecar frame index compatible with Parquet and ORC readers. The on-backend format is open, so there is no lock-in: stop the gateway and objects remain readable with the Apache-2.0 s4-codec CLI, the s4-codec Python package, or the s4fs fsspec adapter.
Operate it with built-in day-2 tooling: s4 estimate projects savings before you deploy, s4 migrate retro-compresses existing objects, s4 recompact re-compresses cold data, s4 maintain runs policy-driven maintenance, and s4 savings reports the storage bytes and dollars actually saved. Prometheus metrics and a Grafana dashboard are included.
Setup: launch the AMI on a GPU instance, attach an IAM instance profile granting access to your bucket, set your S3 endpoint in /etc/s4/s4.env, and start the service. This AMI is billed per instance hour through your AWS bill. The same software is also available free under the Apache-2.0 license.
Highlights
GPU compression preinstalled: NVIDIA driver + nvCOMP (Bitcomp / zstd / GDeflate) baked into the AMI. Launch on g4dn / g5 / g6 and S4 uses the GPU automatically for integer and columnar data.
50-80 percent fewer S3 storage bytes for compressible data, with measured per-bucket savings reporting (s4 savings) built in.
Zero application changes and no lock-in: S3 wire-compatible endpoint, and objects stay readable without the gateway via Apache-2.0 CLI / Python / fsspec tooling.
AWS Marketplace now accepts line of credit payments through the PNC Vendor Finance program. This program is available to select AWS customers in the US, excluding NV, NC, ND, TN, & VT.
Try this product free for 14 days according to the free trial terms set by the vendor. Usage-based pricing is in effect for usage beyond the free trial terms. Your free trial gets automatically converted to a paid subscription when the trial ends, but may be canceled any time before that.
Pricing is based on actual usage, with charges varying according to how much you consume. Subscriptions have no end date and may be canceled any time. Alternatively, you can pay upfront for a contract, which typically covers your anticipated usage for the contract duration. Any usage beyond contract will incur additional usage-based costs.
Additional AWS infrastructure costs may apply. Use the AWS Pricing Calculator to estimate your infrastructure costs.
You pay an hourly software fee tied to the GPU instance type you run. The 31 dimensions map to four GPU instance families: g4dn, g5, g6, and g6e. Within each family, prices scale with instance size, from xlarge up to the largest 48xlarge or metal option. Larger instances handle higher write loads and concurrency. This software fee is separate from your EC2 compute charge, which AWS bills alongside it. You choose the instance that fits your throughput needs, and metering runs through AWS Marketplace with no license keys.
Top-of-mind questions for buyers
What do the hourly instance charges cover, and what does AWS bill separately?
The hourly fee is a software charge for the S4 gateway. Your GPU EC2 compute is billed separately on your regular AWS invoice. The software cuts only stored S3 bytes for compressible data. S3 request charges, egress, and GPU compute stay unchanged. There are no license keys; metering runs through AWS Marketplace.
Am I charged when the instance is stopped or paused?
The software fee is metered per instance-hour, so it accrues only while the instance runs. A stopped instance does not incur the hourly software charge. Underlying AWS storage for the AMI volume may still apply while stopped. You choose an annual option instead of hourly if you run continuously.
Which instance should I pick, and how does size relate to write load?
Size the instance by your write throughput. A smaller instance suits roughly 1 TB per day. Higher daily write volume or high-concurrency workloads need a larger instance in the same or another family. All four families (g4dn, g5, g6, g6e) run the same preinstalled gateway; only capacity and price differ.
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Vendor refund policy
S4 is billed per instance hour on metered usage; charges stop when the instance is terminated. Usage already incurred is generally non-refundable. If you were billed in error or a defect prevented normal use, email aws-support@abyo.net within 30 days with your AWS account ID and the billing period. Valid refunds are processed through AWS Marketplace.
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An AMI is a virtual image that provides the information required to launch an instance. Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) instances are virtual servers on which you can run your applications and workloads, offering varying combinations of CPU, memory, storage, and networking resources. You can launch as many instances from as many different AMIs as you need.
Version release notes
Adds a CloudFormation Quick Launch delivery option. Software identical to version 1.4.1.
Additional details
Usage instructions
Launch this AMI on a GPU instance (g4dn / g5 / g6 / g6e). Attach an IAM instance profile that grants access to your S3 bucket (the gateway uses the instance role for AWS credentials).
Allow inbound TCP 8014 only from the clients that will use the S3-compatible endpoint; do not expose it to the public internet.
Set your S3 backend in /etc/s4/s4.env: S4_BACKEND_ENDPOINT=https://s3.<your-region>.amazonaws.com and AWS_REGION=<your-region>. S4_PORT defaults to 8014.
Start (or restart) the service: sudo systemctl restart s4 (it is enabled to start on boot).
Point your S3 clients (boto3, aws-sdk, Spark, Trino, DuckDB) at http://<instance>:8014 . No application code changes are required - v1.4.1 accepts any SigV4-signed client (the gateway re-signs to the real backend with its own instance-role credentials); ETag presented is MD5(original payload); ListObjects(V2) is client-transparent by default so aws s3 sync and rclone no longer over-transfer.
GPU codecs (NVIDIA nvCOMP) are used automatically for integer and columnar data. Verify GPU: nvidia-smi . Logs: journalctl -u s4 -f . Full docs: /home/ec2-user/README-S4.txt and https://github.com/abyo-software/s4#readme
Community support is available through GitHub issues at https://github.com/abyo-software/s4/issues. Marketplace subscribers can email aws-support@abyo.net for best-effort response within 2 business days. Documentation, an operations runbook, and a threat model are included in the repository.
AWS infrastructure support
AWS Support is a one-on-one, fast-response support channel that is staffed 24x7x365 with experienced and technical support engineers. The service helps customers of all sizes and technical abilities to successfully utilize the products and features provided by Amazon Web Services.
Self-contained EC2 AMI of the S4 transparent S3 compression gateway with CPU codecs (zstd / gzip) preinstalled. Launch on any general-purpose or compute-optimized instance (t3 / m6i / m7i / c6i / c7i), point your S3 clients at it, and cut S3 storage bytes 50-80 percent for compressible data with zero application changes.
Drop-in S3-compatible gateway that transparently compresses every object (CPU zstd or GPU nvCOMP), cutting S3 storage bytes 50-80 percent for compressible data with zero application changes. Includes pre-deployment savings estimation and measured-savings reporting.
Drop-in S3-compatible gateway that transparently compresses every object, cutting S3 storage bytes 50-80 percent for compressible data with zero application changes. This edition bills by measured savings: you pay per GB of backend storage avoided, per hour, at roughly one third of the avoided storage cost.
Cut your CloudWatch custom-metric bill: govern metric cardinality at ingest, then auto-baseline and roll up savings across your whole AWS Organization.
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