Amazon FSx at re:Invent 2020-2021: Move to fully managed file storage on AWS

Managing shared storage for file-based workloads on-premises is often complex, difficult to scale, and costly. At re:Invent 2018, we launched Amazon FSx, which makes it easy and cost effective to launch and scale popular file systems that are fully managed by AWS.

Amazon FSx for Windows File Server is the first and only fully managed native-Windows file system and offers the lowest-cost Windows file storage in the cloud. For compute-intensive workloads, Amazon FSx for Lustre offers fast and scalable shared storage.

Over the past year, we’ve been innovating across a number of areas including management functionality and cross-service integration. AWS re:Invent 2020-2021 features five Amazon FSx sessions during the 3-week conference, along with upwards of 30 other AWS Storage sessions. These sessions offer an opportunity where you can learn about the latest capabilities and common customer uses cases—plus even more AWS Storage sessions launching in January.

In this post, I look at the five Amazon FSx re:Invent 2020-2021 sessions available throughout the next few weeks.

Featured session

Our top focus area is the Amazon FSx for Windows File Server session launching tomorrow, which happens to be my session.

STG210: Move to managed file storage with Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Featured speaker: Sid Misra, Senior Product Manager, Amazon FSx

Learn about the latest capabilities for easily moving on-premises and self-managed file storage to Amazon FSx for Windows File Server. Even though re:Invent is virtual this year, AWS storage experts will be available to interact with during each session – in in every time zone – via the live Q&A chat area.

Get to know Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Customers running file-based workloads such as user shares (for example, team shares or home directories), web content management, and Windows application workloads, are simplifying their infrastructure and gaining more agility with Amazon FSx. Amazon FSx automates backups and other time-consuming administrative tasks such as handling maintenance updates. Native support for Microsoft Active Directory makes it easy to move your SMB storage to Amazon FSx using your existing Active Directory domain. Enterprise-ready features such as live storage and throughput scaling, data deduplication, storage quotas, and end-user file restore frees you up to innovate in your business.

Why customers are moving to managed storage on AWS

By migrating on-premises NAS data to fully managed Amazon FSx, you retain the same features you’re used to with the added benefits of security, scalability, availability, and performance. Another reason customers are moving to Amazon FSx is its deep integration across other AWS services, like with Amazon ECS for easy lift-and-shift of Windows containers. Amazon FSx is also integrated with AWS Backup for fully managed backup compliance across AWS resources such as Amazon EC2, Amazon EBS, and Amazon RDS.

Fully managed

Amazon FSx offers fully managed file storage so you no longer have to worry about planning hardware capacity, managing hardware failures, managing backups, or performing maintenance updates on your file server.

Flexible price and performance options

We offer a range of flexible price and performance options to reduce your total cost of ownership (TCO). With the HDD storage option, Amazon FSx offers the lowest-cost file storage in the cloud for Windows applications and workloads.

Simple and seamless migration to AWS

Amazon FSx is accessible over the industry-standard SMB protocol, which means you don’t have to worry about making changes to your application or workflow when migrating to AWS. Migrating from a NAS is easy using AWS DataSync or familiar tools you’re used to like RoboCopy.

Related re:Invent 2020 sessions

STG214: Supercharge your compute workloads: Deep dive on Amazon FSx for Lustre + S3

Featured speaker: Darryl Osborne, AWS Storage

Fast, shared file systems can help your compute workloads achieve peak performance and reduce costs. Amazon FSx for Lustre is a fully managed, POSIX-compliant shared file system integrated with Amazon S3. FSx for Lustre provides high-performance storage for Amazon EC2 compute resources without the overhead and complexity of a self-managed file system. In this session, you hear about common storage challenges with running compute-intensive workloads and how these opportunities can be addressed with FSx for Lustre. You also learn best practices and see technical demos to help you maximize compute resources and reduce total cost.

STG215: Migrate your data to AWS quickly and securely using AWS DataSync

Featured speaker: Jeff Bartley, AWS Storage

Do you need to move TBs or PBs of unstructured data to AWS? Are you looking to move your data quickly and easily, without the hassle of do-it-yourself scripting, error handling, and monitoring? Do you need encryption, end-to-end data validation, and automatic recovery from network issues? In this session, learn how AWS DataSync enables you to quickly, easily, and securely migrate your on-premises NAS or object data to Amazon S3, Amazon EFS, or Amazon FSx for Windows File Server.

STG216: Choosing the right storage for your on-premises file-based workloads

Featured speaker: Everett Dolgner, AWS Storage

In this session, learn about AWS storage for on-premises file use cases. Workloads relying on the Server Message Block (SMB) protocol, such as home directories, cloud file shares, content repositories, and business applications can benefit from the scalability, durability, and reliability of AWS storage solutions. During this session, gain an understanding of which service to use in various scenarios, learn from examples, and discover fast and easy ways to accelerate your file migration journey.

STG309: Deep dive on Amazon FSx for Windows File Server

Featured speaker: Prashanth Bungale, AWS Storage

In this session, discover the latest Amazon FSx features to enable faster innovation with your business applications. Storage administrators and application owners will learn about the key use cases and how to deploy highly available Windows file storage integrated with their organization’s existing Active Directory environments.

Conclusion

Our AWS Storage re:Invent session speakers look forward to sharing their knowledge, experience, and best practices with you. You’ll discover how you can simplify your infrastructure and learn from other customers who have moved their on-premises NAS data to Amazon FSx. See you online at re:Invent.