The AWS Storage Gateway is making the Storage Gateway even more flexible.

For those who unfamiliar, the AWS Storage Gateway connects an on-premises software appliance with cloud-based storage to integrate your on-premises IT environment with the AWS storage infrastructure.  

Henceforth, Amazon Web Service announces that:

·        You can configure a Storage Gateway as a Virtual Tape Library (VTL), with up to 10 virtual tape drives per Gateway.

·        Each virtual tape drive responds to the SCSI command set, so your existing on-premises backup applications (either disk-to-tape or disk-to-disk-to-tape) will work

without modification.

·        Virtual tapes in the Virtual Tape Library will be stored in Amazon S3, with 99.999999999% durability, announced.

·        Each Gateway can manage up to 1,500 virtual tapes or a total of 150 TB of storage in its Virtual Tape Library.

·        Virtual tapes in the Virtual Tape Library can be mounted to a tape drive and become accessible in a matter of seconds.

·        Archival storage Virtual Tape Libraries are integrated with a Virtual Tape Shelf (VTS).

·        Virtual tapes on the Virtual Tape Shelf will be stored in Amazon Glacier, with the same durability, but at a lower price per gigabyte and a longer retrieval time (about 24 hours).

·        You can easily move your virtual tapes to your Virtual Tape Shelf, by simply ejecting them from the Virtual Tape Library using your backup application.

·        Data moving from your Gateway to and from the AWS cloud is encrypted using SSL; data stored in S3 and Glacier is encrypted using 256-bit AES, and more.

The AWS Storage Gateway is available in multiple AWS Regions and you can start using it today.

• Each activated gateway costs $125 per month, with a 60-day free trial.
• There's no charge for data transfer from your location up to AWS.
• Virtual Tapes stored in Amazon S3 cost $0.095 (less than a dime) per gigabyte per month of storage. You pay for the storage that you use and not for any "blank tape" (so to speak).
• Virtual Tapes stored in Amazon Glacier cost $0.01 (a penny) per gigabyte per month of storage. Again, you pay for what you use.
• Retrieving data from a Virtual Tape Shelf costs $0.30 per gigabyte. If the tapes that you delete from the Virtual Tape Shelf are less than 90 days old, there is an additional, pro-rated charge of $0.03 per gigabyte.

Note: these prices are valid in the US East (Northern Virginia) Region. You can also check the Storage Gateway Pricing page for costs in other Regions.