Cloud file storage refers to the storage of digital files, such as documents, photos, videos, and other types of data, on remote servers that are accessed through the internet. This allows users to store, access, and share their files from anywhere with an internet connection, rather than relying on local storage devices like hard drives or USBs.
AWS (Amazon Web Services) offers several file storage services that allow you to store and manage files in the cloud. These services provide scalable, durable, and accessible storage solutions for various use cases, such as shared storage, backups, or serving static files for web applications.
Each AWS file storage service is designed for specific use cases and provides different features, performance characteristics, and pricing models.
This is part of a series of articles about AWS EFS.
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There are several benefits of using AWS as a file storage solution, including:
Related content: Read our guide to AWS file sharing
Here are some of the file storage options offered by AWS.
Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (S3) is a scalable, secure object store that allows users to retain and retrieve unlimited amounts of data from anywhere in the world. S3 provides a user-friendly web service interface to store and access data, and it can be used with any type of file, such as documents, images, videos, or application data. S3 also provides features like automatic data replication, versioning, and lifecycle policies to help users manage their data efficiently.
Amazon S3 File Gateway is a virtual appliance provided that enables on-prem apps to use Amazon S3 as a primary file storage platform. It provides a hybrid cloud store that enables customers to store and manage their file-based applications in Amazon S3, while still providing on-premises access to files and folders using the Network File System (NFS) or Server Message Block (SMB) protocols.
The Amazon S3 File Gateway can be installed on a virtual machine (VM) or a physical server, and it appears to the on-premises applications as a traditional file server. The gateway provides a set of APIs that map the file system requests from the applications to Amazon S3 operations, allowing the gateway to store and manage the files in Amazon S3.
Elastic File System (EFS) is a fully managed, highly scalable, and available file system used with AWS cloud services and on-prem resources. It provides a simple interface that enables users to easily create and customize file systems.
An EFS file system can scale rapidly and automatically without requiring the user to provision the storage resources. EFS can support a wide range of workloads, including big data analytics, content management, media processing, home directories, and web serving.
Learn more in our detailed guides about:
Amazon FSx is a managed file system optimized for Windows and Linux workloads. It provides high-performance file storage that can be accessed over industry-standard SMB and Lustre protocols as well as FSx for NetApp ONTAP. FSx is designed to interoperate with other AWS offerings, such as EC2, WorkSpaces, and Amazon AppStream 2.0, making it easy to integrate into your existing cloud infrastructure.
Amazon File Cache is a service provided by AWS that enables customers to access files stored in Amazon S3 from local servers and applications with low latency and high throughput. It is designed to improve the performance of workloads that require frequent access to large amounts of data by caching frequently accessed files in local cache storage.
The Amazon File Cache service can be deployed on a VM or a physical server, and it works with existing file servers and applications using standard protocols like NFS and SMB. The service automatically synchronizes data between the on-premises cache and Amazon S3, ensuring that the most recent version of the file is always available.
File Cache provides a unified view of data from connected datasets as a set of directories and files. It supports features like data compression, encryption, and versioning to optimize the storage and transfer of files and provide security and compliance with regulations. It also provides monitoring and logging capabilities to help customers track performance and usage.
Here are some best practices for using AWS file storage solutions:
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, the leading enterprise-grade storage management solution, delivers secure, proven storage management services on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. Cloud Volumes ONTAP capacity can scale into the petabytes, and it supports various use cases such as file services, databases, DevOps, or any other enterprise workload, with a strong set of features including high availability, data protection, storage efficiencies, Kubernetes integration, and more.
In particular, Cloud Volumes ONTAP provides file services, serving NAS, including NFS, SMB / CIFS and multiprotocol access.
Learn more about how Cloud Volumes ONTAP helps to address the challenges of file sharing in these Cloud Volumes ONTAP Customer Case Studies.