When it comes to moving your on-premises storage to the AWS cloud, two key services come into play: Storage Gateway and AWS DataSync. These services help bridge the gap between your on-premises storage and cloud storage, making data transfer seamless and efficient. 🌐🔄
Storage Gateway: Bridging On-Premises and Cloud Storage
Storage Gateway is a service that provides a secure bridge between your on-premises environment and AWS cloud storage. It enables you to seamlessly move your data to AWS, all while continuing to use your existing on-premises applications. 🏢➡️☁️
Types of Gateways:
✅ S3 Gateway:
- The S3 Gateway works with NFS and SMB protocols to seamlessly transfer data to S3 from on-premises systems. While it’s transferring data to the cloud, it appears as if the data is still being accessed from the local server. The most frequently used data is cached in the File Gateway.
- Example: If you have a local file server that your employees access frequently, using the S3 Gateway allows the files to be stored in S3, while caching the most commonly accessed ones locally for quick retrieval. 📂⚡
✅ FSx Gateway:
- This gateway allows access to Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, which offers native integration with Active Directory. It provides a local cache for frequently accessed files, improving performance and reducing access time.
- Example: If you’re using Windows File Server in your office, the FSx Gateway can move your data to the cloud, while keeping the most-used files cached locally, ensuring faster access to important data. 🖥️💼
✅ Volume Gateway:
- The Volume Gateway allows you to use iSCSI protocol-backed storage with S3. It supports cached volumes (local storage for frequently accessed data) and stored volumes (data stored in the cloud).
- Example: For example, if you have a database application that needs low-latency access to data, Volume Gateway keeps the most frequently used database files stored locally, while the remaining data is kept in EBS or S3. 📊💡
✅ Tape Gateway:
- Some organizations still use physical tapes for backups. Tape Gateway allows you to create a Virtual Tape Library (VTL), which is compatible with many backup software vendors. You can then back up your data to Amazon Glacier for long-term storage.
- Example: If you have an existing tape-based backup system, you can use Tape Gateway to move your tapes to the cloud, turning them into virtual tapes and storing them securely in Amazon Glacier. 🗃️📦
How to Set Up:
- Suppose you don’t have an existing Storage Gateway appliance. In that case, you can either install a virtual gateway on your premises or order a physical gateway device from AWS to set up on your local network.
AWS DataSync: Fast, Efficient Data Transfer
AWS DataSync simplifies the process of transferring large datasets to and from AWS. It can move data between on-premises systems, other cloud providers, or even between AWS regions. 🌍⚡
Key Features:
✅ Data Transfer: AWS DataSync supports syncing data to S3, EFS, and FSx but not to EBS. It’s great for large-scale data migrations.
- Example: If you’re moving a large amount of data from your on-premises file server to S3, DataSync will help you transfer everything while preserving your file permissions and metadata. 🗂️🔄
✅ Scheduling: DataSync allows you to schedule transfers to run at regular intervals — whether hourly, daily, or weekly — which makes it easy to automate regular backups or data syncs.
- Example: If your team works with a large amount of data that needs to be updated in the cloud every night, you can schedule DataSync to automatically sync the latest data to S3 at the end of each day. 📅🔄
✅ Snowcone and Snowball: AWS Snowcone and Snowball are physical devices that come with DataSync pre-installed. They are useful for transferring large amounts of data when internet bandwidth is limited.
- Example: If your company is relocating to a new office and you have terabytes of data that need to be moved but you don’t have fast enough internet, Snowcone or Snowball would allow you to physically move that data to AWS efficiently. 📦🚚
✅ Transfer Across Different Storage Services: DataSync also supports metadata and permissions transfer, which means that the file attributes remain intact during the migration process.
- Example: When transferring a directory from on-premises storage to EFS, DataSync will ensure that file ownership, permissions, and timestamps are preserved, so your apps will continue working as they did before. 🔐🗂️
✅ Transfer Family: The Transfer Family provides support for FTP, FTPS, and SFTP protocols, allowing you to securely move data to S3 or EFS.
- Example: If your team uses FTP to move files to and from a server, you can continue using the same protocol to transfer your files to Amazon S3 without needing to change your workflow. 📂🔐
TL;DR:
Storage Gateway bridges on-premises data and AWS cloud with gateways for S3, FSx, Volume, and Tape storage. 🏢➡️☁️
- S3 Gateway caches frequently accessed data locally while storing it in S3. 📂⚡
- FSx Gateway provides Windows File Server access with a local cache for fast data retrieval. 🖥️💼
- Volume Gateway supports iSCSI block storage with cached or stored volumes. 📊💡
- Tape Gateway enables virtual tape libraries in the cloud, backed up to Amazon Glacier. 🗃️📦
AWS DataSync efficiently transfers large amounts of data to and from AWS with support for S3, EFS, and FSx. 🔄
- DataSync ensures metadata and permissions are maintained during transfers. 🔐
- Snowcone and Snowball devices help with offline data transfer. 📦🚚
- Transfer Family supports FTP/FTPS/SFTP transfers to S3 or EFS. 🔐
Both services help you efficiently move data to AWS and ensure seamless cloud integration, making it easier to manage your storage needs. ☁️📊