UPDATED 15:05 EDT / NOVEMBER 26 2018

CLOUD

AWS advances cloud storage with Intelligent Tiering, new data management tools

Amazon Web Services Inc. opened its re:Invent 2018 conference today with the introduction of new products and features intended to give enterprises more incentive to move their data to its cloud platform.

Many of the additions center on the provider’s S3 object storage service. S3 is one of the original products that AWS had on offer when it launched 12 years ago and continues to be a linchpin of the platform. The provider claims that S3 stores trillions of data objects for customers while handling millions of requests per second.

Intelligent Tiering, the first new offering, incorporates insights that AWS gained from analyzing how companies use their data objects, Chief Evangelist Jeff Barr wrote in a blog post. It lets companies reduce S3 expenses by moving records to slower, less expensive storage hardware if they’re not used for a certain period of time.

What makes the capability stand out is that it handles the process automatically. Intelligent Tiering can move idle objects to low-cost storage after a predetermined number of days and then return them to a company’s main S3 environment as soon as they’re accessed by an application. According to Barr, this automation makes it possible to optimize costs even when administrators can’t predict data usage patterns in advance.

Intelligent Tiering debuted alongside a feature called EFS Infrequent Access Storage Class that likewise aims help companies reduce their cloud expenses. It’s a new storage option for AWS’ EFS file storage service that is described as 85 percent less expensive than the standard tier.

The other new features, in turn, focus more on easing day-to-day operations. One of the main highlights is a capability called S3 Batch Operations that makes it possible to update upwards of billions of objects at once, according to AWS. It lets administrators perform common tasks such as changing access permissions and also provides the ability to carry out more advanced processing using AWS Lambda, the provider’s buzzed-about “serverless computing” service.

Two more services that made their debut at re:Invent are AWS Transfer for SFTP and AWS DataSync. The former offering enables companies to transfer data in and out of S3 via the widely used SFTP protocol, while the latter serves a more strategic purpose: making it easier for to migrate on-premises workloads to AWS.

DataSync can import data from a company’s in-house infrastructure using a purpose-built protocol developed internally by the cloud giant. AWS said that the technology is up to 10 times faster than popular open-source alternatives. It expands the already sizable lineup of solutions that the provider offers to ease cloud migrations, which includes both cloud services and physical data transfer appliances.

AWS announced these new data-centric offerings alongside a pair of more niche solutions. The provider unveiled RoboMaker, a managed platform for developing robotics software, and a tool called Amplify Console that’s designed to speed up the creation of simple websites and apps.

Photo: SiliconANGLE

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