Amazon Redshift announces hands-off automated cross-region backups

Amazon Redshift has introduced automated cross-Region snapshot copying, enabling automatic backups of provisioned clusters or serverless workgroups to selected target AWS Regions. This feature continuously and incrementally copies the latest snapshots without manual intervention, offering an additional business continuity option. Enabling the feature eliminates the need to manually start cross-Region snapshot copies during unplanned failures, as the system copies the most recent available snapshot to the target independently of the local cluster's schedule. To configure cross-Region snapshot copying, enable the automated feature for each cluster, set the target Region for copying snapshots, and specify how long to retain automatic snapshots in the target Region. User snapshots are retained until explicitly deleted. To restore snapshots in the target Region, use the restore functionality for a new provisioned cluster or serverless workgroup. Snapshots copied via automated cross-Region copying are prefixed with "copy" in the target Region. This feature is available in all AWS commercial and GovCloud (US) Regions. For configuration details, see the Amazon Redshift documentation section on cross-Region snapshot copying. For cluster restoration procedures, refer to the documentation on restoring clusters from snapshots. For pricing, review the Amazon Redshift pricing page sections on backups and storage and data transfer.

Why it matters

This update is useful for database administrators and enterprises that need to enhance business continuity and disaster recovery strategies, and seek high availability and data protection for their clusters