Research Object Storage (S3) documentation uses specialized terminology.  This document provides definitions for some of these terms.

• Buckets:  Research Object Storage (S3) utilizes buckets, which are “containers” for objects (i.e. files and folders) stored in your account.  All data is stored in one or more buckets.
  
  • Campus-only bucket:  data stored in this type of bucket is available from anywhere on the UW-Madison campus network or off-campus through a VPN.  It can be set up to be “public,” meaning anyone on campus can have read access, or “private,” meaning anyone on campus can have read access, but only if they have the access key.
  • Web bucket:  data stored in this type of bucket is available anywhere on the web.  It can be setup to be “public,” meaning anyone anywhere can have read-only access (i.e. completely “open” to anyone), or “private,” meaning anyone anywhere can have read-only access, but only if they have the access key.
    
    
• S3 Protocol:  S3 is a web storage protocol developed by Amazon. S3 stands for Simple Storage Service and is used to programmatically get and create data.
  
  
• API:  API is the acronym for application programming interface — a software intermediary that allows two applications to talk to each other. APIs are an accessible way to extract and share data within and across organizations.  The S3 API allows you to programmatically extract and share data stored within your Research Object Storage (S3) account.  An example of use an API is to write a write a Python
  
  
• Access key:  Also known as an API key, an access key is an alphanumeric string that is used as a unique identifier to control access to your account.  To put it metaphorically, if the data in your account were inside a house labeled "Research Object Storage", the access key would be the literal house key that unlocks the front door and allows you access to it.
   
• Cyberduck: An open-source FTP client that can be used to access and transfer data with your Research Object Storage (S3) account.
  
  
• Quota:  A storage quota refers to the maximum amount of data allowed in a bucket.  "Quota" might also be used to refer to the amount of no cost storage allotment you received with your Research Object Storage account.