AWS Storage Gateway
- What it is
- A hybrid storage service: a virtual appliance on premises that gives local applications low-latency access to effectively unlimited AWS cloud storage.
- Caches frequently used data locally, stores everything durably in AWS.
- The gateway types
- S3 File Gateway — expose Amazon S3 as an NFS/SMB file share.
- FSx File Gateway — low-latency on-premises access to Amazon FSx for Windows File Server.
- Volume Gateway — iSCSI block volumes. Cached keeps hot data local, stored keeps all data local and backs it up to AWS.
- Tape Gateway — a virtual tape library that existing backup software writes to, archived into Amazon S3 Glacier. Replaces physical tape.
- Not to be confused with
- AWS DataSync — a one-time or scheduled bulk transfer tool, not an ongoing access layer.
- AWS Outposts — full AWS hardware and compute on premises.
- Exam signal
- “Keep the on-premises application, extend its storage to the cloud” → Storage Gateway.