Introduction

• AWS is pushing for "hybrid cloud"

  • Part of your infrastructure is on-premises
  • Part of your infrastructure is on the cloud

• This can be due to

  • Long cloud migrations
  • Security requirements
  • Compliance requirements
  • IT strategy

• S3 is a proprietary storage technology (unlike EFS / NFS), so how do you expose the S3 data on-premise?

• Bridge between on-premises data and cloud data

• Use cases:

  • disaster recovery
  • backup & restore
  • tiered storage
  • on-premises cache & low-latency files access

• Types of Storage Gateway:

  • S3 File Gateway
  • FSx File Gateway
  • Volume Gateway
  • Tape Gateway

AWS Storage Cloud Native Options

S3 File Gateway

• Configured S3 buckets are accessible using the NFS and SMB protocol
• Most recently used data is cached in the file gateway
• Supports S3 Standard, S3 Standard IA, S3 One Zone A, S3 Intelligent Tiering
• Transition to S3 Glacier using a Lifecycle Policy
• Bucket access using IAM roles for each File Gateway
• SMB Protocol has integration with Active Directory (AD) for user authentication

FSx File Gateway

• Native access to Amazon FSx for Windows File Server
• Local cache for frequently accessed data
• Windows native compatibility (SMB, NTFS, Active Directory...)
• Useful for group file shares and home directories

Volume Gateway

• Block storage using iSCSI protocol backed by S3
• Backed by EBS snapshots which can help restore on-premises volumes!
• Cached volumes: low latency access to most recent data
• Stored volumes: entire dataset is on premise, scheduled backups to S3

Tape Gateway

• Some companies have backup processes using physical tapes (!)
• With Tape Gateway, companies use the same processes but, in the cloud
• Virtual Tape Library (VTL) backed by Amazon S3 and Glacier
• Back up data using existing tape-based processes (and iSCSI interface)
• Works with leading backup software vendors

Storage Gateway – Hardware appliance

• Using Storage Gateway means you need on-premises virtualization
• Otherwise, you can use a Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance
• You can buy it on amazon.com
• Works with File Gateway, Volume Gateway, Tape Gateway
• Has the required CPU, memory, network, SSD cache resources
• Helpful for daily NFS backups in small data centers

Storage Gateway Summary