What is the primary purpose of Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS)?

The primary purpose of Amazon Elastic Block Store (Amazon EBS) is to provide persistent block-level storage volumes for use with Amazon EC2 instances. This means that EBS is designed to deliver high-performance block storage that can be attached to EC2 instances, allowing applications running on EC2 to have persistent data storage. EBS volumes remain available even when the EC2 instances are stopped or terminated, which is essential for applications that require high availability and durability of data.

EBS supports a variety of use cases, including databases, file systems, and applications that require a consistent and reliable data store. The ability to take snapshots of EBS volumes also facilitates backup and recovery processes, ensuring that critical data is protected.

In contrast to other options, such as managing and monitoring network traffic or offering a serverless architecture, EBS specifically focuses on delivering the storage needed for running applications on EC2. Moreover, while EBS can store large data files, it is primarily characterized by its block storage capabilities rather than just being a simple file storage solution. Thus, the answer accurately reflects the core functionality of Amazon EBS in the AWS ecosystem.