Hey John,

It really depends on your configuration, http://take.ms/JFQmt . If it was configured to delete the files locally, then you would not be able to access these files locally. However if it is configured to not delete these files locally, then you will have the same set of files on your local server and Amazon.

By the way, if you plan to keep the files locally, I don't see any reasons to actually store them on Amazon S3. If you are looking at speeding up the loading time, you should consider using a Pull CDN instead.

Hi Mark

We were really thinking about Amazon for cheap storage really - the site is a photography community meaning people want to upload lots of images and this was perhaps away of being able to afford to lift the limits that we have set.

I have never used Amazon before is it likely to slow things down significantly if we switch the them to store and deliver the images users upload?

Hey John,

It shouldn't affect your current site performance if you pull your site media files to Amazon S3.

If your site user base is split across a number of locations worldwide, S3-based CDNs can provide a major performance benefit for your users reducing lag time, increasing content availability, and improving the overall quality of your applications.

Hey Arlex

This is all new to me - can you provide a link to any good quality resources to learn more about this?

You can read more on this page
[gist type="php"]
https://aws.amazon.com/s3/?sc_channel=PS&sc_campaign=acquisition_MY&sc_publisher=google&sc_medium=s3_b&sc_content=s3_p&sc_detail=amazons3&sc_category=s3&sc_segment=176347148075&sc_matchtype=p&sc_country=MY&s_kwcid=AL!4422!3!176347148075!p!!g!!amazons3&ef_id=WuSKAQAABV0tAXUC:20180727090028:s
[/gist]

The CDN element looks like it would increase our costs quite a bit - if we used AW3 for storage to begin with and then added CDN service later would this cause a problem? Does it need to be all or nothing?

Yes, it shouldn't cause any problem after you only add CDN service.

Now the important part is setup Amazon S3 then pull all your local server photo file over your Amazon S3 storage location.