Amazon Web Services Inc. says its customers will be able to automate the backup of data from both AWS services and on-premises systems faster and more easily with a new service called AWS Backup.

Announced late today, the service enables data to be backed up across multiple cloud services, including block storage, databases, file systems and object storage.

AWS Backup has been integrated with some of Amazon’s key cloud services and tools, including Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Elastic Block Store, Amazon Elastic File System and Amazon Relational Database Service. Compatibility with additional services is planned later.

Customers will also be able to back up data from their on-premises applications via an integration with the AWS Storage Gateway.

“[Cloud] has attracted two distinct types of builders,” said Bill Vass, AWS’ vice president of storage, automation and management services. “Some are tinkerers who want to tweak and fine tune the full range of AWS services into a desired architecture, and other builders are drawn to the same breadth and depth of functionality in AWS, but are willing to trade some of the service granularity to start at a higher abstraction layer, so they can build even faster.”

Vass added that AWS Backup was built for this second type of builder, many of whom have requested a single service for performing data backups. Early adopters of AWS Backup include data center firm Rackspace Inc., financial services company State Street Corp. and dental service provider Smile Brands Inc.

Analyst Holger Mueller of Constellation Research Inc. told SiliconANGLE that AWS Backup might not be the most exciting new AWS service, but it is an important one as the ability to easily backup data is extremely important for any enterprise.

“Backup is one of the many silent heroes of IT,” Mueller said. “Nobody cares, but when it is needed it had better work.

Still, backup in the cloud is not easy as most cloud systems run 24/7 and so it can usually only be done with the help of the infrastructure provider, Mueller explained. As such, the launch of AWS Backup is a “key step that should give enterprise CxOs peace of mind that next generation apps running on AWS can be reliably backed up.”

Image: AWS