What is an AWS storage gateway?
AWS Storage Gateway is an important cloud service that bridges the gap between your on-premise environments and AWS cloud storage. As the demand for scalable, secure, and reliable storage solutions grows, businesses are increasingly adopting cloud technologies to meet these needs. AWS Storage Gateway provides a cloud service that connects your on-premise infrastructure to the AWS storage ecosystem, thereby allowing organizations to effectively store and manage their data in the cloud while maintaining their existing infrastructure.
The need for such a service is driven by the necessity to handle large volumes of data with flexibility and cost-efficiency. AWS Storage Gateway is used to deliver low-latency data access to on-premises applications, leverage the agility and security of AWS cloud, and offer virtually limitless storage capacity without the need for new hardware deployments.
How AWS Storage Gateway is Used?
Designed for low-latency data access, AWS Storage Gateway ensures your on-premises applications can tap into cloud-backed storage smoothly, maintaining normal user and application workflows. It offers virtually limitless cloud storage, eliminating the need for new storage hardware deployments. Storage Gateway supports compliance with essential features like encryption, audit logging, and write-once, read-many (WORM) storage, ensuring robust security and data integrity to meet regulatory standards and protect sensitive data.
What is an AWS storage gateway?
AWS Storage Gateway is a versatile hybrid cloud storage service that connects your on-premises environments with AWS cloud storage. It provides an excellent solution for enterprises to benefit from the cloud while keeping their current infrastructure intact.
An AWS Storage Gateway is used to:
- Securely back up on-premises data to AWS for long-term retention.
- Replicate critical data to the cloud for robust disaster recovery solutions.
- Smoothly transfer of large volumes of data from on-premises to AWS.
- Create a collaborative environment that supports standard file protocols like NFS and SMB for easy integration.
What are the Types of AWS Storage Gateways
AWS Storage Gateway comes in three main types: File Gateway, Volume Gateway, and Tape Gateway. Each type addresses specific storage needs and ensures smooth integration between your on-premises environments and AWS cloud storage.
File Gateway
File Gateway is a great solution for storing and retrieving objects in Amazon S3 using familiar file-based protocols like NFS and SMB. It’s perfect for file storage applications, allowing for seamless integration with your existing infrastructure and making the transition to cloud storage smooth and effortless.
Volume Gateway
Volume Gateway is designed to offer block storage volumes that you can easily mount as iSCSI devices from your on-premises servers. It comes in two modes to suit your needs.
- Cached Volume Mode
- Stored Volume Mode
The cached volumes mode keeps your frequently accessed data locally, ensuring quick access while storing the rest in AWS. Meanwhile, the stored volumes mode keeps all your primary data on-premises but backs it up asynchronously to AWS, giving you both security and convenience.
Tape Gateway
Tape Gateway enables you to use your existing tape-based backup systems to store data on virtual tape cartridges, which are securely stored in AWS. For even more savings, these virtual tapes can be archived to Amazon S3 Glacier, offering a cost-effective alternative to traditional tape backups. This approach helps you maintain your backup processes while leveraging the benefits of cloud storage, such as lower costs and greater data resilience.
AWS Storage Gateway Pricing Explained
AWS Storage Gateway pricing is designed to be flexible, letting you pay for what you use without any upfront costs or long-term commitments. The pricing structure takes into account various factors, such as the type of gateway, the amount of data stored, data transfer activities, and additional services like snapshots and data retrieval. This pay-as-you-go model ensures that businesses can manage their costs effectively while benefiting from scalable and efficient cloud storage solutions.
File Gateway pricing
The cost of using File Gateway centers around the data you store in Amazon S3, charged per GB, with prices differing by region. To keep these costs under control, it’s wise to routinely review your stored data and adopt best practices for storage optimization. This way, you can ensure you are only paying for what you truly need.
When it comes to storage pricing, the data is stored and billed as Amazon S3 objects. For request pricing, data written to AWS storage by your gateway is billed at $0.01 per GB, and file storage in S3 is billed as Amazon S3 requests.
| Request Pricing | Cost |
| Data written to AWS storage by your gateway | $0.01 per GB |
| File storage in S3 | Billed as Amazon S3 requests. |
Amazon FSx File Gateway Pricing
Amazon FSx File Gateway simplifies hybrid cloud storage with straightforward pricing. Users pay $0.69 per hour for gateway usage, complemented by storage costs based on Amazon FSx for Windows capacity. This approach helps businesses optimize their IT budgets by providing a cost-effective solution for integrating on-premises file systems with scalable Amazon FSx storage, tailored to meet varying workload demands.
| Amazon FSx File Gateway Pricing | Cost |
| Gateway Pricing | $0.69 per Hour |
| Storage Pricing | Stored and billed as Amazon FSx for Windows capacity |
Volume Gateway pricing
Volume Gateway simplifies block storage integration with AWS through straightforward pricing. Storage is billed at $0.023 per GB-month, ensuring cost-effectiveness across varying data volumes and regions. Requests such as data written to AWS storage by your gateway are charged at $0.01 per GB, while the deletion of EBS Snapshots and Volumes incurs no additional cost. This transparent pricing approach supports businesses in optimizing their storage infrastructure while maintaining scalability and performance with AWS Volume Gateway.
| Storage Pricing | |
| Volume storage | $0.023 per GB-month of data stored |
| Snapshot storage in EBS | Stored and billed as Amazon EBS snapshots. |
| Request Pricing | |
| Data written to AWS storage by your gateway | $0.01 per GB |
| EBS Snapshot/Volume Deletes | Free |
Tape Gateway pricing
When planning for AWS Tape Gateway expenses, you’ll find virtual tape storage priced at $0.023 per GB-month. Archiving in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval is more economical at $0.0036 per GB-month, and S3 Glacier Deep Archive offers the lowest rate at $0.00099 per GB-month. Writing data to AWS storage costs $0.01 per GB, but the first 100 GB each month is on the house. Retrieving tapes from S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval will cost you $0.01 per GB, while from S3 Glacier Deep Archive it’s $0.02 per GB.
| Storage Pricing for | Cost |
| Virtual tape storage | $0.023 per GB-month of data stored |
| Virtual tape storage (archived in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval) | $0.0036 per GB-month of data stored |
| Virtual tape storage (archived in S3 Glacier Deep Archive) | $0.00099 per GB-month of data stored |
Moving tapes between these Glacier tiers is charged at $0.0032 per GB. Early deletion of tapes comes with a pro-rated fee: $0.0108 per GB within 90 days from S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval, and $0.00099 per GB per month within 180 days from S3 Glacier Deep Archive. Archiving your virtual tapes comes at no cost. But be aware of additional charges if you utilize Amazon CloudWatch for notifications and logs
| Request Pricing for | Cost |
| Data written to AWS storage by your gateway | $0.01 per GB |
| Virtual tape retrieval (from S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval) | $0.01 per GB |
| Virtual tape retrieval (from S3 Glacier Deep Archive) | $0.02 per GB |
| Virtual tape move (from S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval to S3 Glacier Deep Archive) | $0.0032 per GB |
| Pro-rated charge for virtual tapes deleted within 90 days of being archived in S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval | $0.0108 per GB |
| Pro-rated charge per month for virtual tapes deleted within 180 days of being archived in S3 Glacier Deep Archive | $0.00099 per GB |
| Virtual tape archival | Free |
Data Transfer pricing
Pricing for AWS Storage Gateway services depends on the amount of data transferred to and from your gateway, and it varies by region and the host of the gateway. While inbound data transfer to AWS is generally free, outbound data transfer incurs charges.
| Data Transfer OUT from the AWS Storage Gateway service to your on-premises gateway appliance | Cost |
| Next 9.999 TB / Month | $0.09 per GB |
| Next 40 TB / Month | $0.085 per GB |
| Next 100 TB / Month | $0.07 per GB |
| Greater than 150 TB / Month | $0.05 per GB |
Transferring data from AWS Storage Gateway to an Amazon EC2-based gateway appliance within the same region is free, whereas transferring to other AWS regions costs around $0.02 per GB.
Strategies to Optimize Your AWS Storage Gateway Cost
Without proper cost management strategies, the expenses associated with running Storage Gateway can escalate quickly. This guide outlines practical strategies to optimize your AWS Storage Gateway pricing effectively.
Right-Sizing Hardware Resources
To avoid unnecessary costs, make sure your AWS Storage Gateway is using the right-sized hardware resources. Over-provisioning can be expensive, so utilize AWS Cost Explorer and CloudWatch metrics to monitor your resource usage and adjust CPU, RAM, and disk size as needed. For example, if your workload doesn’t demand the high performance of NVMe disks, opting for more affordable SSDs might be a better choice.
Optimizing Data Transfer
To reduce data transfer costs, consider leveraging cached volumes to minimize the amount of data transferred to and from AWS. Compress your data before transferring it, and whenever possible, use AWS Direct Connect for a more cost-effective transfer solution. Regularly review your data transfer patterns and optimize or schedule large transfers during off-peak hours to further cut costs.
Consolidating Gateways and File Shares
Consolidating multiple file shares into fewer gateways can significantly reduce management and maintenance efforts. By streamlining your gateways, you lower the overhead of running numerous systems and improve hardware resource utilization. However, it’s crucial to monitor performance closely to ensure that this consolidation does not negatively impact operations, maintaining a balanced load across all gateways.
Schedule Gateway Usage
For workloads that are predictable but not continuous, it’s wise to schedule your gateways to operate only during essential periods. By leveraging AWS Lambda or AWS Instance Scheduler, you can automate the activation and deactivation of your gateways according to your workload needs. This strategy helps in cutting down costs by preventing charges for inactive gateways.
Monitor and Manage Data Retention Policies
To avoid unnecessary storage costs, it’s important to regularly review and manage your data retention policies. Periodically reviewing and managing your data retention policies ensures that you don’t store data longer than necessary. By setting up automated policies to delete or archive obsolete data, you can ensure that you’re only keeping what’s necessary, which will help reduce your storage expenses over time.
Conclusion
AWS Storage Gateway costs are designed to align perfectly with your unique usage and storage requirements, making it an adaptable solution for enterprises of all scales. Optimizing AWS Storage Gateway pricing demands strategic planning and regular monitoring. Whether you’re utilizing File Gateway for seamless file storage, Volume Gateway for solid block storage, or Tape Gateway for efficient archiving, each option brings specific benefits and cost structures tailored to different needs. By understanding and managing these costs, you can ensure your cloud infrastructure meets your storage needs and stays within budget, maximizing the return on your cloud technology investment.
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