Amazon FSx now available in AWS GovCloud (US)

Files are everywhere—and much of organizations’ on-premises data is in network-attached storage (NAS) appliances. To meet digital transformation priorities and reduce costs, organizations are migrating their on-premises NAS data to Amazon Web Services (AWS). Moving NAS data to fully managed Amazon FSx enables customers to reduce the time needed for capacity planning, maintenance of the file system environment, or patching underlying servers. This allows organizations to focus more on the mission-critical parts of their application and driving more innovation.

Amazon FSx makes it simple to launch and run feature-rich and highly performant file systems with just a few clicks. Amazon FSx is now available in the AWS GovCloud (US) Regions, allowing government agencies, educational institutions, and nonprofits to scale their most sensitive file-based workloads to reduce cost and streamline operations. When customers move their NAS data and applications to AWS, they benefit from increased cost savings, improved security, and flexibility to modernize their infrastructure at their own pace.

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, a fully managed native-Windows file system for server message block (SMB) applications, offers low cost Windows file storage in the cloud. It is integrated with Active Directory, both on premises and AWS Microsoft Managed AD. It is also broadly accessible from AWS VPN, Amazon WorkSpaces, Amazon AppStream 2.0, and multiple Amazon Virtual Private Clouds (Amazon VPCs). Organizations use Amazon FSx for user or department Windows file shares, content repositories, and general-purpose business applications. These workloads can move to Amazon FSx with minimal disruption to existing applications and provide a quick onramp to the cloud, while retaining all the same features and improving scalability, availability, and performance.

Cengage, a digital learning solution in education, moved to fully managed Windows storage on Amazon FSx. Coleman Greene, cloud operations manager, Cengage, said, “Amazon FSx for Windows File Server enabled us to migrate and store over 12 TB of content files from our on-premises data center to the cloud. Our transition to the cloud was seamless, not only was there minimal re-platforming necessary, but we were also able to move to a highly performant platform with little modification to existing processes or permissions.”

Amazon FSx for Lustre

For compute-intensive workloads, Amazon FSx for Lustre offers fast and scalable shared storage and is used across workloads such as machine learning and high performance computing (HPC). It is easy to use with Amazon S3, providing a POSIX-compliant file interface for processing your compute-intensive datasets where the highest throughput is required. FSx for Lustre offers a range of price and performance options to meet your workload requirements.

The Water Institute of the Gulf (Water Institute) leveraged FSx for Lustre to power its storm surge and wave analysis models, removing the storage bottlenecks associated with their traditional on-premises infrastructure. “With the AWS Cloud, we are able to rethink our workflow. Instead of focusing on maximum speed for individual simulations, we focus on maximum throughput. We can run greater numbers of simulations on fewer cores,” said Zach Cobell, a numerical modeler at the Water Institute.

Fueling innovation

AWS offers a broad array of programs and getting started resources to help modernize critical workloads. The AWS Migration Acceleration Program (MAP) for Storage, an extension of the existing AWS MAP program, is designed to help organizations reach their migration goals faster with AWS services, best practices, tools, and incentives.

Learn more about the move to managed storage and AWS GovCloud (US). Check out the on-demand webinars on how to move to managed cloud storage.