AWS CloudHSM Backups Can Now Be Copied Across Regions

Posted on: Jul 30, 2018

AWS CloudHSM now allows you to copy backups of your CloudHSM Cluster from one region to another for disaster recovery purposes. You can use the copied backup to create a clone of the original cluster in the new region. This simplifies the development of globally distributed or cross-region redundant workloads.

AWS CloudHSM is a cloud-based hardware security module (HSM) that enables you to easily generate and use your own encryption keys on the AWS Cloud. It is a fully-managed service that automates time-consuming administrative tasks for you, such as hardware provisioning, software patching, high-availability, and backups. CloudHSM also enables you to scale quickly by adding and removing HSM capacity on-demand, with no up-front costs.

AWS CloudHSM backups can only be copied across commercial regions. Users in the AWS GovCloud (US) region cannot copy backups into or out of the region. There is no cost for copying your backup across regions, or for creating a cluster from the copy in the new region. HSM instances are billed on an hourly basis. You can learn more about copying CloudHSM backups across regions here. You can learn how to synchronize keys between cloned clusters here.