AWS Storage Gateway, providing a cloud extension of to your backup capabilities
Overall Satisfaction with AWS Storage Gateway
We used the AWS Storage Geteway as a virtual tape library to enhance the capacity of our backup environment. The business problem that the product addressed was, it gave us the ability to backup additional servers as we had grown exponentially the last few years. With it we were able to backup important dev and QA systems without impacting the retention policy for our production system.
Pros
- The AWS Storage Gateway can be deployed very quickly. We required only a couple of hours to get it setup and was able to present it to the backup server as a media manager and VTL drives.
- The provisioning of the virtual tapes was also pretty easy to setup. Being able to utilize Glazier storage provided a great ROI.
- The documentation AWS provides is very user friendly, allowing us to set up the AWS Storage Gateway the correct way.
Cons
- There was a limitation on the throughput you were able to push thru the AWS Gateway, increasing the backup time negatively impacting the performance of the system being backed up.
- The inability to have de-duplication required more bandwidth that's what we anticipated decreasing the ROI. The increased egress charges were less than desired.
- It was somewhat cumbersome when ejecting and retrieving back the virtual tapes. The process and documentation explaining how that piece of the AWS Gateway could have been more clearer.
- One of the most important features of the AWS Storage Gateway is the speed the deployment process. Being able to spin out the appliance and the on premise component was fairly painless.
- The ability to utilize Glacier storage for the virtual tapes storage gave as great ROI.
- With the AWS Storage Gateway, we were able to eliminate the need to pay for a offsite tape storage company. Reducing IT's managing cost.
- A positive ROI that AWS Storage Gateway had is we were able to eliminate using a offsite tape management company.
- Another ROI is that it has allowed for quicker file restore capability. We can recall a tape much quicker from AWS, compared to having contact the offisite tape management company and in most cases wait a day or two for the tape to arrive.
- Furthermore, the capability of using Glacier storage for the AWS Storage Gateway is another ROI, reducing the cost of storing our backups.
- Finally being able to use more features of AWS is another ROI, because it allowed us to better utilize our cloud investment.
AWS Storage Gateway is better than Unitrends Data Center Backup and Recovery because it was entirely cloud based. Unlike Unitrends that requires a physical appliance that then would be connected to a AWS bucket. The AWS Storage Gateway was able to utilize Glacier storage, while Unitrends could only use either S3 or S3-IA decreasing the ROI with the more expensive storage class. Furthermore the licensing model for the Unitrends is greater that with the AWS Storage Gateway.
Do you think AWS Storage Gateway delivers good value for the price?
Yes
Are you happy with AWS Storage Gateway's feature set?
Yes
Did AWS Storage Gateway live up to sales and marketing promises?
I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process
Did implementation of AWS Storage Gateway go as expected?
Yes
Would you buy AWS Storage Gateway again?
Yes
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