AWS makes it easy to share data with the competition

AWS has opened its DataSync service to external clouds. In the future, AWS customers will also be able to automatically exchange their data with Google Cloud Storage and Microsoft Azure Files. Until now, DataSync has been used for automated, encrypted data transfer between on-site physical data storage and various storage options in the AWS Cloud, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Elastic File System ( Amazon EFS) and Amazon FSx.

Connecting with the other two big cloud providers will primarily benefit those who “have to exchange data with customers, vendors, or partners,” AWS explains in the ad. At the moment, it doesn’t seem to be explicitly targeted at multi-cloud users.

Secure sharing via DataSync

Data exchange through DataSync is protected with end-to-end encryption and integrity checking and can be initiated through the AWS DataSync Console, the AWS Command Line Interface (CLI), or tasks created in the SDKs. from AWS. Progress is also monitored through the DataSync console or the Amazon CloudWatch service. AWS explains the full process in the blog announcing the new feature.

Although the company itself will not charge any additional fees for data transfer with competing services, one cannot be sure that the same will apply to Google and Microsoft. Because DataSync compresses data for internal transmission, AWS recommends deploying a DataSync agent in the affected external cloud. This could potentially save fees for customers. Per Gbyte transferred in DataSync AWS charges $0.0125.

(young)