Amazon RDS for SQL Server now supports SQL Server Native Backup/Restore with S3
Amazon RDS for SQL Server now supports SQL Server Native Backup/Restore using Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3). You can now take database level backups as SQL Server backup files (.bak) and store them in your Amazon S3 bucket. SQL Server full backups are commonly used to migrate or move databases among different SQL Server instances, whether in the cloud or on-premises, for data ingestion, disaster recovery and other backup purposes. You can export a full backup of your on-premises database, store it in S3 and then use the custom stored procedures offered by RDS to restore that backup to an existing RDS instance. You will also be able to backup an RDS database into S3 and restore the backup file later onto an on-premises or RDS database. Storing and transferring backup files into and out of AWS through S3 affords customers an added layer of protection for disaster recovery and gives customers a peace of mind that their data can be moved around easily. On RDS, you can encrypt your backup files across SQL Server Express, Web, Standard and Enterprise Editions.
To use SQL Server Native Backup/Restore, you need to specify the S3 bucket that you want to use for storing the backup files. You also need to grant RDS the rights to access this S3 bucket by creating an AWS IAM role. You can then associate this IAM role with your RDS instance using RDS Option Groups which you can access through AWS Console or using AWS CLI.
SQL Server Native Backup/Restore feature is now available in the US East (N. Virginia), US West (Oregon), EU (Ireland), EU (Frankfurt), Asia Pacific (Sydney), Asia Pacific (Tokyo), Asia Pacific (Singapore), Asia Pacific (Bombay) and South America (Sao Paulo) AWS Regions, with more regions to follow. There are no additional charges for using this feature with Amazon RDS for SQL Server, however, the usage of Amazon S3 storage will be billed at regular rates.
Learn more by visiting the documentation pages.