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Block & File

AWS block and file storage: instance volumes, shared file systems and FSx for those coming from NetApp and Windows.

FOCUS · FROM SAN TO CLOUDFSx for NetApp ONTAP: the gentle road to bring enterprise storage to the cloud
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YoctoIT material for clients and partners · AWS e i nomi dei servizi sono marchi di Amazon.com, Inc.
01 · What it is

EBS, EFS & FSx, made clear.

Three complementary services: EBS gives volumes to EC2 instances (from general-purpose gp3 to io2 for demanding databases), EFS is the elastic shared NFS, FSx brings enterprise file systems to the cloud — ONTAP, Windows File Server, Lustre — with their native features intact.

io2 Block Express
up to 256,000 IOPS per volume: high-end SAN, without the SAN
Elastic
EFS grows and shrinks by itself: never 'disk full' again
4 engines
FSx: ONTAP, OpenZFS, Windows, Lustre — the file system you already know
Icona ufficiale AWS — EBS, EFS & FSx
OFFICIAL AWS ICON · Block & File
02 · How to use it well

The things that make the difference.

The storage map

EC2 / applicationswho consumes the storage
EBS · block
EFS · elastic NFS
FSx · enterprise
three services, three jobs
Snapshots & AWS Backupbuilt-in protection, central policies
S3the final destination of snapshots and tiering
Block, file and protection in one design

EBS gp3 & io2

Configurable performance independent of size: IOPS and throughput bought as needed.

Incremental snapshots

Point-in-time copies on S3, replicable cross-region: volume DR with an API.

FSx for NetApp ONTAP

SnapMirror, clones and deduplication in the cloud: replication from your on-prem FAS without reinventing anything.

FSx for Windows

Native SMB with Active Directory: Windows shares without file servers to patch.

03 · In depth

Block, file and the right choice

EBS is block for EC2: gp3 as default, io2 Block Express for demanding databases (up to 256k IOPS per volume), incremental snapshots to S3. EFS is elastic multi-AZ NFS with standard/IA classes and elastic throughput. FSx brings the specialized filesystems: Windows File Server (SMB/AD), NetApp ONTAP (multiprotocol, SnapMirror), Lustre for HPC. The choice depends on protocol, latency and sharing semantics.

  • gp3 vs io2 — gp3 for general purpose, io2 BX for sub-ms latencies and guaranteed IOPS
  • Snapshot EBS — incremental, cross-region, with Fast Snapshot Restore where RTO demands
  • EFS elastic — NFS scaling from zero to PB: you pay for use, no provisioning
  • FSx for ONTAP — managed NetApp: SnapMirror from your on-prem array to the cloud
  • FSx for Windows — SMB with integrated AD: the company file server without the iron
  • DLM — Data Lifecycle Manager: scheduled snapshots and retention without scripts
04 · Numbers and lifecycle

The numbers that matter.

256k
maximum IOPS per io2 Block Express volume
4
FSx families: Windows, ONTAP, Lustre, OpenZFS
3 AZ
the standard EFS redundancy: the file system that doesn't depend on one zone
100%
EBS snapshots are incremental: you pay for the delta
Data in the cloud wants the right service: we map your workloads' protocols and latencies and choose EBS/EFS/FSx with the numbers.
05 · Use cases

Where it really pays off.

Databases on EC2

io2 volumes for Oracle and SQL Server beyond RDS standard: enterprise-SAN performance.

Home directories & shares

EFS and FSx Windows instead of file servers: no more clusters to maintain.

NetApp storage DR

SnapMirror to FSx ONTAP: NAS disaster recovery without a second data center.

We migrate storage with judgment: every workload on the right service, with snapshots and protection policies from day one.