Data Management Glossary
Cloud Storage Gateway
A cloud storage gateway is a hardware or software appliance that serves as a bridge between local applications and remote cloud-based storage. It provides basic protocol translation and simple connectivity to allow incompatible technologies to communicate. The gateway may be hardware or a virtual machine (VM) image.
The requirement for a gateway between cloud storage and enterprise applications became necessary because of the incompatibility between protocols used for public cloud technologies and legacy storage systems. Most public cloud providers rely on Internet protocols, usually a RESTful API over HTTP, rather than conventional storage area network (SAN) or network-attached storage (NAS) protocols.
Gateways can also be used for archiving in the cloud, paired with automated storage tiering in which data can be replicated between fast, local disk and cheaper cloud storage to balance space, cost and data archiving requirements. The challenge with traditional cloud gateways that front the cloud with on-premise hardware and use the cloud like another storage silo is that the cloud is very expensive for hot data that tends to be frequently accessed, resulting in high retrieval costs.
How does a cloud storage gateway work across enterprise environments and what architectural problem was it designed to solve?
A cloud storage gateway serves as a bridge between local applications and remote cloud-based storage by providing basic protocol translation and simple connectivity so incompatible technologies can communicate. This became necessary because public cloud providers rely on Internet protocols, usually a RESTful API over HTTP, rather than conventional SAN or NAS protocols used by legacy storage systems. The gateway may be hardware-based or delivered as a virtual machine (VM) image.
How are cloud storage gateways used for cloud archiving and automated storage tiering and what cost challenges arise?
Gateways can be used for archiving in the cloud and paired with automated storage tiering, where data is replicated between fast, local disk and cheaper cloud storage to balance space, cost, and data archiving requirements. Traditional cloud gateways that front the cloud with on-premise hardware use the cloud like another storage silo. Because the cloud is very expensive for hot data that is frequently accessed, this results in high retrieval costs.
How do cloud storage gateways compare to file-level cloud tiering when managing multi-site data?
Cloud storage gateways create a new appliance (virtual or physical) that acts as your storage at each site to cache data locally and put a golden copy in the cloud. They are useful when you are doing active file collaboration across multiple sites and do not have NAS at branch sites or do not want to use your existing NAS. However, they do not leverage existing data storage investments and require data to be moved to the gateway, which creates additional infrastructure costs. Cloud storage gateways store data in the cloud in their proprietary format. Similar to storage-based cloud tiering, they create proprietary lock-in and unnecessary cloud gateway costs in perpetuity. They also typically create additional on-premises costs.
What additional on-premises infrastructure do cloud storage gateways require?
Cloud storage gateways are typically hardware-based since they have to serve hot data from the cache. Many vendors also offer virtual appliance options for smaller deployments.
How does the cloud storage gateway data duplication model impact total storage capacity requirements?
Cloud storage gateways typically put all the data in the cloud and then cache some data locally. So, if you are using a cloud storage gateway for 100TB, then all 100TB of data is in the cloud and a subset of it (maybe 20TB or 30TB) is also cached locally. This means you may need 130TB of infrastructure to house 100TB of data. Depending on the size of the local cache, this may be larger.
Do cloud storage gateways integrate with existing NAS systems or replace them entirely?
A cloud storage gateway is a new storage infrastructure silo that caches some data locally and keeps all of the data in the cloud. It replaces your existing NAS. It does not work with it. It is a rip-and-replace approach.
What are the licensing charges and long-term cost implications of cloud storage gateways?
Cloud storage gateways lock data in the cloud with their proprietary format. This means you cannot directly access your data in the cloud; data access needs to be through the gateway software in the cloud. Many customers are surprised to learn they have to pay gateway licensing costs even to access data in the cloud and this cost continues as long as you need your data. This lock-in limits flexibility and creates unnecessary cloud expenses. It also limits your use of the cloud as you cannot natively access your data without the gateway software.
Assuming $700/TB/yr. of cloud storage gateway licensing costs, cloud storage gateways have 287% higher annual costs than using a file-level data management solution with the cloud. This is a recurring cost that you pay for over the lifetime of your data.
Cloud storage gateway bridges local applications and remote cloud-based storage through protocol translation and connectivity. While it supports archiving and automated storage tiering, it duplicates data between local cache and cloud, creates a new storage silo, and locks data into a proprietary format with ongoing licensing costs. These architectural and cost implications are critical when evaluating cloud data migration requirements and alternatives such as file-level data management solutions.
This table summarizes the common cloud data migration requirements and the differences between Komprise Elastic Data Migration and Cloud Storage Gateways.
