If your data storage strategy includes cloud object storage, you will have to consider the tools that will be used to move this data and access it once it’s all migrated to the cloud. Luckily, when it comes to object storage, all the vendors will provide you with a range of quality tools out-of-the-box and options to move and access your data. If your data set is very large, access time requirements are short, or the geographical distance between the source and destination are far apart, consider using FileCatalyst. FileCatalyst integrates with several of the most popular object storage solutions to give you flexibility in your approach. How do you decide which FileCatalyst option is right for your organization? In this blog series we’ll look at several leading object storage providers to help you understand the differences.
Evaluating the Amazon S3 Option
Today we will examine the FileCatalyst integration with Amazon S3. As a product purpose-built for fast file transfer, we knew it was essential to create an accelerated, comprehensive way to migrate data to this well-liked platform. We wanted to ensure that AWS, a pioneer in cloud computing, was recognized within our transferring capabilities.
A Brief History of Amazon S3
In 2006 AWS relaunched and introduced S3 to the world. At the time, Amazon S3 was one of the first cloud storage services available on the market. This option features several different storage classes, including; S3 Standard, S3 Intelligent-Tiering, S3 Standard-IA, S3 One Zone-IA, S3 Glacier, and S3 Glacier Deep Archive. Each storage class offers different capabilities to address different needs. These are based on the cost of the service, the durability of the data, and the use case.
Benefits of Cloud-Based-Storage
Many companies have chosen to move their storage to the cloud, and FileCatalyst supports this decision with full cloud storage integration capabilities. Some of the benefits companies experience when selecting cloud storage versus traditional on-premise storage include an increase in agility, lower costs, and stronger security.
FileCatalyst-Amazon S3 Integration
With these benefits in mind, our integration ensures that your data is transferred reliably to and from your S3 storage. You will find FileCatalyst Direct Server available to use through AWS Marketplace. However, it can also be installed in your own instance within your AWS account (Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC), Marketplace, etc.).
Additionally, there are two common deployment scenarios we want to highlight.
Image 1) FileCatalyst Server installed in AWS in an EC2 instance
Image 2) FileCatalyst Client and FileCatalyst Server installed on Premise
How It Works
When you select FileCatalyst as your S3 data transfer solution, there’s no need to purchase anything extra. Everything you need is already built into the solution. FileCatalyst can be configured to access S3 through the use of access keys, or with identity and access management (IAM) roles. In order for FileCatalyst to access your S3 bucket without storing access keys, make sure to run FileCatalyst on an EC2 instance with an appropriate IAM role assigned to it. To maximize performance, FileCatalyst leverages the S3 multi-part capabilities and streams files directly to your S3 storage.
To maximize file transfer speeds to S3, we recommend that you install FileCatalyst server as close (geographically) as possible to the region and Availability Zone (AZ) where your S3 bucket resides. This ensures the HTTP communication between FileCatalyst server and S3 is as fast as possible. FileCatalyst client applications may be installed at a separate location, either on-premise or in the cloud, and used to accelerate files to/from that location to your S3 bucket.
If files need to be transferred within AWS, the FileCatalyst server and client should be deployed in the same region, AZ, VPC, and subnet. This will enable the solution to get your files to and from S3 even faster. FileCatalyst can transfer files into S3 at up to 5 Gbps per single file and up to 10 Gbps with multiple concurrent files when the solution is completely deployed on AWS infrastructure.