Think - with -Tech: Storage Gateway

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Storage Gateway | Summary & Hands-on.

AWS Storage Gateway | Overview

AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid cloud storage service that connects your on-premises applications to AWS cloud storage.

This allows twtech to seamlessly integrate on-prem systems with scalable, secure cloud storage.

Types of Storage Gateway:

Type	Protocol	Storage Type	Use Case
File Gateway	NFS / SMB	Amazon S3	File shares in the cloud, backups, analytics
Volume Gateway	iSCSI	Amazon S3 + EBS Snapshots	Block storage, disaster recovery
Tape Gateway	iSCSI (VTL)	Amazon S3 + Glacier	Virtual tape backups, replace physical tape

1. File Gateway

Mountable NFS or SMB shares backed by Amazon S3.
Ideal for applications that use file-based storage.
Supports file uploads to S3 as objects with full metadata.

Use cases:

Backup apps (e.g., Veeam) writing to file shares.
Analytics on large file sets.
File migration to the cloud.

2. Volume Gateway

iSCSI block storage volumes, backed by S3 and optionally cached locally.
Two modes:

Stored Volumes: Data kept locally, backed up to S3.
Cached Volumes: Data stored in S3, frequently accessed data cached locally.

Use cases:

Disaster recovery
Low-latency access to data
Cloud-based snapshots

3. Tape Gateway

Virtual tape library (VTL) that connects to backup software using iSCSI.
Stores virtual tapes in S3, with archiving to S3 Glacier or Deep Archive.

Use cases:

Replace physical tape infrastructure
Long-term backups
Regulatory compliance.

Key Benefits:

Seamless Integration with on-prem software (NFS, SMB, iSCSI, VTL).
Durability & Security via Amazon S3, Glacier, IAM, and encryption.
Scalability without hardware limits.
Cost Efficiency (pay for what twtech uses).
Centralized Management through the AWS Console or CLI.

Dell-EMC Storage Solution:

Device May be ordered from: Amazon.com

Dell EMC (now part of Dell Technologies) offers a wide range of enterprise storage solutions designed for different workloads, environments, and performance needs.

Here’s twtech quick overview of the main Dell EMC storage device families:

1. Dell PowerStore

Type: Unified storage (block & file)
Ideal for: Modern data centers, virtualization, and high-performance workloads.
Key Features:

NVMe and SCM support for ultra-fast storage.
Scale-up and scale-out architecture.
AppsON: runs VMware virtual machines directly on the storage.

2. Dell PowerMax

Type: High-end enterprise storage (block)
Ideal for: Mission-critical applications (e.g., databases, financial apps).
Key Features:

End-to-end NVMe with SCM.
Machine learning for automated data placement.
Up to 350GB/s bandwidth and 15M IOPS.

3. Dell Unity XT

Type: Midrange unified storage (block & file)
Ideal for: General-purpose workloads, small to medium enterprises.
Key Features:

Hybrid or all-flash configurations.
Easy to deploy and manage.
Native file and block support.

4. Dell VxRail

Type: Hyper-converged infrastructure (HCI)
Ideal for: Simplified virtualization and private cloud.
Key Features:

Fully integrated with VMware.
Scales with minimal configuration.
Combines compute, storage, and networking.

5. Dell ECS (Elastic Cloud Storage)

Type: Object storage
Ideal for: Cloud-native apps, backups, and archiving.
Key Features:

S3-compatible API.
Geo-replication and multi-tenancy.
Massive scalability.

6. Dell Isilon (PowerScale)

Type: Scale-out NAS
Ideal for: Unstructured data (e.g., media, big data, backup).
Key Features:

Massive scalability (petabytes+).
Single namespace.
High performance for large files and workloads.

Use Cases

Use Case	Recommended Product
High-performance DB	PowerMax or PowerStore
Midrange virtualization	Unity XT or PowerStore
Cloud-native/archive	ECS or PowerScale
File-heavy workloads	PowerScale (Isilon)
HCI/private cloud	VxRail