Which storage type is characterized by temporary block storage directly attached to EC2 instances?

The choice of temporary block storage directly attached to EC2 instances refers to the EC2 Instance Store. This storage type is ephemeral, meaning that it is physically attached to the host machine and offers high performance for temporary data needs. Instances utilize this storage for tasks that require fast data access, such as caching and scratch space for temporary application data.

EC2 Instance Store is ideal when data resilience is not a primary concern, as the data is lost when the instance is stopped or terminated. This makes it suitable for workloads where quick access to high-throughput temporary storage is critical, but the persisting of that data long-term is not essential.

To put this in context, Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store) provides persistent block storage, which retains data even after an instance is stopped. EBS Multi-Attach allows multiple instances to be attached to a single EBS volume, but it still refers to EBS as a persistent storage option. Amazon EFS (Elastic File System) is a scalable file storage service for use with AWS Cloud services and on-premises resources but does not provide block storage capabilities.

In summary, the characteristic of being directly attached and temporary defines EC2 Instance Store as the appropriate choice for this question regarding the nature of storage used