What is our primary use case?
The use case for AWS Backup is the same as Azure. The only difference is the customer's choice and preference.
AWS Backup is primarily meant for customers with workloads on AWS or using cloud-native applications. This is the most common use case, accounting for about 70% of users.
It is also a good solution for customers with a hybrid on-premises environment and highly scalable data. Traditional storage solutions, such as Spectrum Protect, can be difficult to scale down dynamically. With AWS Backup, customers pay as per their consumption, so they only pay for what they use.
Another advantage of AWS Backup is that customers can choose the storage tiering for their data. They can store different types of data for different lengths, depending on how often it is accessed and how quickly it needs to be retrieved. This can help customers to save money on their storage costs.
What is most valuable?
AWS is scalable and low-cost with easy configuration.
What needs improvement?
Hybrid cloud capabilities could be improved.
AWS does have solutions, but it's probably not the best when you have both on-premise data center and Cloud. Unless you bring in AWS Outpost or other AWS solutions, configuring or leveraging AWS backup is not easy. If it's completely Cloud, then it's great. If you've Cloud and on-prem. Then, you have to bring in another AWS product or utility to leverage backup from your on-premise data center.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using AWS Backup for five years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
The product is the most stable across all other cloud providers.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The solution’s scalability is good. We mainly deal with the medium scale with a few enterprise-grade customers.
We deal with enterprise clients, so we need to provide enterprise-grade support. We've to go above and beyond what is defined in our contracts and terms and conditions. AWS is good at delivering on its contractual obligations, but we must constantly exceed their expectations to work with enterprise clients. Within the bounds of our contracts, AWS is excellent.
How are customer service and support?
The customer support is reasonably good.
How would you rate customer service and support?
How was the initial setup?
AWS Backup is a great solution for AWS-hosted applications. It is easy to configure and manage if you know about backup policies. Using AWS Backup to back up non-AWS applications can be more cumbersome.
If you are hosted on AWS, use AWS Backup. If you are hosted on Azure, use Azure Backup. Cross-platform and cross-cloud backup solutions are not good.
If you have policies, deployment takes a few minutes. The important thing is to establish your backup policy, as defined by the application. The technical work does not take more than a few minutes.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The solution’s pricing is competitive. AWS is being used more by SME industries rather than enterprises.
What other advice do I have?
I've exclusively worked with your cloud-native solutions, including AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform. These are all cloud-native backups and services. Before 2017-2018, I was primarily in your data center space, where we used Spectrum Protect and IBM SAN.
We have a partnership with AWS. We provide managed services for our clients. We expect the customer to have already procured the product and to have a relationship with the vendor. We are a certified MSP for AWS, Azure, and Google.
The solution is a fully managed service. You have to monitor whether the backups are running regularly or not. There are monitoring solutions provided by the AWS. The maintenance is relatively easy and good.
If you are using AWS applications, use AWS Backup. It does not make sense to use a different backup solution on AWS. You can monitor the storage tiering behind your backups, significantly impacting your costs.
Overall, I rate the solution a nine out of ten.