Amazon Web Services launched AWS Cloud Gateway today, which connects on-premise software appliances with cloud-based storage.

It heralds the rise of cloud services for back up storage and an example of the challenges traditional storage players face as automated services replace traditional IT functions. (Read John Furrier’s post this morning for more perspective about the storage angle and what it means for gateway cloud services.)

But even more so it gives AWS a way to eventually have customers move applications from on-premise to AWS EC2, its on-demand compute service.

And finally it’s a classic case for why more tools are needed to help manage the thousands of virtual machines that come into play when more apps are deployed to the cloud. It’s why DevOps practices will become increasingly important.

The AWS Cloud Gateway is a software appliance that sits between business applications and storage infrastructure. The service backs up the data to Amazon S3. The data is transferred over SSL and store data at REST using AES 256 encryption. You can pull the data back into your service whenever yo need it.

The service has its use for instance, in case of a corrupted disk. AWS takes snapshots of the data and stores it in S3, ready to be implemented in case of a problem.

But more significantly, the service can mirror data so the on-premise app can run on AWS EC2. A customer may leverage Amazon EC2 and its on-demand compute capabilities to add capacity or as AWS says a “cost-effective way to run your normal workloads.”

That’s the key here. AWS is using this new backup service as a trojan horse. Backup is the stated reason for the service but it clearly provides a way for the data to be transferred to AWS to run entirely on EC2.

This is the kind of news that shows how IT will continue to have to adopt DevOps practices.
In today’s world, IT spends a lot of time configuring storage appliances. But the future points to greater importance that will be placed on managing virtual machines in a cloud environment. That means IT will need more tools to manage multiple infrastructures such as OpDemand, a tool for deploying and managing cloud infrastructure. It includes a template library and a toolbar for management. For reference, Mike Vizard wrote a post yesterday about OpDemand and its use with AWS.