Storage

Hybrid Storage - Integrating On-Premises and Cloud with AWS Storage Gateway

Learn about integrating on-premises and cloud storage with AWS Storage Gateway. Covers the four gateway types - S3 File Gateway, FSx File Gateway, Volume Gateway, and Tape Gateway - with use cases and deployment patterns.

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Hybrid Storage Challenges and the Role of Storage Gateway

While many enterprises are moving to the cloud, it is not realistic to immediately migrate all on-premises applications and workflows to the cloud. Existing file servers, backup systems, and business applications continue to run on-premises, while there is a need to leverage the scalability and cost efficiency of the cloud. AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid storage service that provides access to AWS storage services from on-premises environments using standard protocols. It is deployed on-premises as a VM or hardware appliance, offering standard protocols such as NFS, SMB, and iSCSI. No application-side changes are required; simply pointing existing file access paths to the gateway completes the cloud storage integration. A local cache ensures low-latency reads and writes for frequently accessed data, while all data is automatically synchronized to AWS.

Four Gateway Types

Storage Gateway offers four types, selected based on your use case. S3 File Gateway stores files as S3 objects via NFS/SMB protocols. File paths map directly to S3 keys, and data stored in S3 can be accessed directly by analytics services such as Athena, Redshift Spectrum, and SageMaker. FSx File Gateway provides access to Amazon FSx for Windows File Server via SMB protocol, making it ideal for migrating Windows file servers to the cloud. It also supports Active Directory integration and file-level access control. Volume Gateway provides block storage via iSCSI protocol with two operating modes: Cached mode (data in S3, cache local) and Stored mode (data local, snapshots in S3). Snapshots are stored as EBS snapshots and can be attached to EC2 to build DR environments. Tape Gateway operates as an iSCSI VTL (Virtual Tape Library), allowing existing backup software to back up to the cloud using the same operations as physical tapes.

Deployment and Operations

Storage Gateway can be deployed as a VM on VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, or Linux KVM, or using an AWS-provided hardware appliance. For VM deployment, the minimum requirements are 4 vCPUs, 16 GB RAM, and local disk for caching. Cache disk size can be configured from 150 GB to 64 TB depending on the workload. It can also be deployed on EC2 instances for use cases where NFS/SMB file access to S3 is needed from applications within a VPC. The bandwidth throttling feature lets you schedule the network bandwidth used by the gateway by time of day, prioritizing application traffic during business hours and running data synchronization at night. CloudWatch metrics let you monitor cache hit rates, upload/download throughput, and gateway health. For a comprehensive guide to storage gateway strategies, check out technical books on Amazon.

Use Cases and Choosing Between Storage Gateway and DataSync

The primary use cases for Storage Gateway are cloud storage access from on-premises applications (day-to-day file access), backup and archiving (replacing physical tapes with Tape Gateway), and DR (restoring to EC2 from Volume Gateway snapshots). Understanding the distinction from AWS DataSync is also important. DataSync is a service specialized for bulk data migration and periodic synchronization, executing high-speed large-scale data transfers from on-premises to S3/EFS/FSx. Storage Gateway is a gateway for day-to-day file access, suited for use cases where applications continuously read and write data. An effective combination is to use DataSync for bulk data transfer during the migration phase, then switch to Storage Gateway for day-to-day access after migration is complete. For S3 File Gateway pricing, there is no charge for the gateway itself; you only pay for S3 storage and request fees.

Storage Gateway Pricing

Storage Gateway pricing consists of the gateway type and storage usage. S3 File Gateway is charged based on request count and S3 storage fees. Volume Gateway incurs EBS storage charges for snapshots. Tape Gateway costs approximately $0.024 per GB per month per virtual tape. The gateway VM itself runs on on-premises resources with no additional AWS charges. Optimize latency and cost by appropriately sizing the cache to keep frequently accessed data local.

Summary - Guidelines for Using Storage Gateway

AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid storage service that seamlessly integrates on-premises and cloud storage. Its four types - S3 File Gateway, FSx File Gateway, Volume Gateway, and Tape Gateway - cover a wide range of use cases including file sharing, block storage, and backup. It combines low-latency access through local caching with the unlimited scalability of the cloud. Storage Gateway is a strong choice when on-premises storage capacity is running low, when you want to retire physical backup tapes, or when you are pursuing a phased migration to the cloud.

Related Services

AWS Storage GatewayA hybrid storage service that seamlessly connects on-premises environments to AWS storageAmazon S3A scalable object storage serviceAmazon FSxFully managed file systems for Windows File Server, Lustre, NetApp ONTAP, and OpenZFS

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