What is our primary use case?
It was used in hybrid environments. This was not necessarily specific to a vertical, but rather depended on how recent the data center was. The gateway was more for people who were not willing to go all in on cloud yet. It was for people who had legacy infrastructure that they wanted to maintain for a longer period of time.
How has it helped my organization?
What is most valuable?
AWS Storage Gateway is very customer friendly in terms of their features, though perhaps not in price. If there is something that the customer needs to do with moving data from one point to another, they will make sure that is available to customers. At one time they had dozens of migration tools. They make it possible for data to get from anywhere to AWS Cloud, though not necessarily back. They will make it very easy and will do customer engagements to get that data from any legacy device to AWS. AWS Storage Gateway was born of all the cloud blank products, including Snowball, the big mobile unit. All of them were created to get more people to the AWS platform.
In the past few years I have worked for data security software companies implementing customer solutions.
What needs improvement?
No opinion at this time. Adequate for my needs.
For how long have I used the solution?
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
No known stability issues.
How are customer service and support?
AWS will respond to customer needs, as a customer-centric company. If an issue impacts a large part of their customer base, they will proactively fix it. If it is a small part of their customer base, they will be much slower to fix it. The tools AWS provides are as easy to use as is possible given the complexities of the topic.
Some companies' tools are much easier to use in the security space, such as Rubrik, Microsoft. However, that simplicity has the potential to expose users to issues because simplicity requires obfuscation of the complexity. Currently, there is no way to eliminate the work that needs to be done to secure an environment. Common assumptions can be made on behalf of the customer and details removed from view to simplify implementation, but that is only a facade. Rubrik's implementations are faster to set up and provide a sense of security, but it does not work equally well across company size. Reality is that most enterprise customers will have to tweak the specific parameters for their business to ensure data safety, which, in turn, makes protection products complex to set up. Cohesity and Commvault do a better job of securing a wider base of enterprise customers. Both partner well with AWS. [Rubrik and Microsoft can be tuned to provide customized protection as well, but that is not their primary message].
Customer service from AWS has deteriorated over the past 3-5 years as the company is not as tightly driven by the Amazon leadership principles as they once were. AWS leadership principles are an incredible structure. Elegant in their simplicity and ability to cover most scenarios, but the quality of the employees and particularly of management at AWS has deteriorated. Leading to a half-way approach, marginalizing the company and making it just like everywhere else. AWS does not have the ability to maintain talent as it did in the past and customer service is not a department that can withstand turnover. Tribal knowledge is key to success, no matter how good your mechanisms are. Without institutional knowledge customer service deteriorates and customers suffer.
What other advice do I have?
All security depends on the use case and how the customer has protected their data. Every feature can be in the product, whether it is AWS Storage Gateway, Cohesity, Rubrik, or any other provider. However, they rely on the customer to turn it on and utilize it appropriately. The solution requires either a consulting engagement that manages all the settings over time or someone on site who understands it and keeps it working properly.
Every time something is built, bad actors find a way to manipulate it. It is a constantly evolving process to keep data secure. The NIST guidelines change often because the landscape changes frequently.
AWS Storage Gateway is adequate. For those experienced in the space trying to move data, it is sufficient though not super easy to use.
The approach from AWS Storage Gateway involves providing specialized tools for specific needs. AWS always creates multiple iterations of their tools, which may appear unnecessarily complex, but is a customer-centric philosophy intended to provide the right tool for specific use cases. AWS strives to give users the right tool rather than making them click through irrelevant options.
Regarding pricing, technical decisions are rarely based on price alone. Technology Companies (as a whole) set their prices appropriately, and margins do not vary significantly between companies for similar products. Any significant price differences usually indicate technical differences or configuration issues rather than price gouging.
