A Simple Guide to AWS Storage Gateway: Hybrid Cloud Storage Explained

# A Simple Guide to AWS Storage Gateway: Hybrid Cloud Storage Explained

Key Takeaways

AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid-cloud storage service that connects on-premises applications to AWS storage (S3, EBS, Glacier) without rewriting app code.
It ships as a virtual machine (VMware, Hyper-V, KVM) or hardware appliance, and runs in three modes: File Gateway, Volume Gateway, and Tape Gateway.
Local caching keeps frequently used data fast on-site while the full dataset lives durably in the cloud.
Common uses: backup consolidation, disaster recovery staging, tiered file shares, and retiring physical tape libraries.

What Is AWS Storage Gateway?

AWS Storage Gateway is a hybrid storage service that gives your on-premises servers, applications, and backup software a local interface to Amazon S3, Amazon EBS snapshots, and Amazon S3 Glacier — without requiring any changes to how those applications already read and write data. Instead of application code calling S3 APIs directly, Storage Gateway presents standard protocols (NFS, SMB, iSCSI, or a virtual tape library) on your network, and handles the translation to AWS storage behind the scenes.

This matters because most legacy applications — file servers, backup jobs, databases expecting block volumes — were never built to speak S3's REST API. Storage Gateway is the bridge that lets them keep working exactly as they do today while the data itself ends up durable, versioned, and cost-optimized in the cloud.

How Storage Gateway Works

You deploy the Storage Gateway software as a VM image (VMware ESXi, Microsoft Hyper-V, or KVM) on your own hardware, as an Amazon EC2 instance, or on a supported hardware appliance. Once activated against your AWS account, the gateway:

Presents a local storage endpoint (a file share, an iSCSI LUN, or a virtual tape drive).
Caches hot data on local disk for low-latency reads and writes.
Asynchronously uploads data to AWS over HTTPS, using multipart uploads for large objects.
Encrypts data in transit (TLS) and at rest (SSE-S3 or SSE-KMS).

Because the cache absorbs the latency of the round trip to AWS, applications see fast local I/O while the durability and scale live in the cloud.

# Activate a gateway after deploying the VM image
aws storagegateway activate-gateway \
  --activation-key "ABCDE-12345-FGHIJ-67890-KLMNO" \
  --gateway-name "on-prem-file-gw-01" \
  --gateway-timezone "GMT-5:00" \
  --gateway-region us-east-1 \
  --gateway-type FILE_S3

The Three Gateway Types

File Gateway

File Gateway exposes NFS or SMB file shares that map directly to S3 buckets. Every file written to the share becomes an S3 object, one-to-one, which means you can also access and manage that data with native S3 tools, Lambda triggers, or S3 Lifecycle policies.

# Create an NFS file share backed by an S3 bucket
aws storagegateway create-nfs-file-share \
  --client-token "nfs-share-01" \
  --gateway-arn "arn:aws:storagegateway:us-east-1:123456789012:gateway/sgw-1234ABCD" \
  --role "arn:aws:iam::123456789012:role/StorageGatewayRole" \
  --location-arn "arn:aws:s3:::my-company-nfs-bucket" \
  --default-storage-class "S3_STANDARD" \
  --squash "RootSquash"

Use cases: shared departmental file servers, content repositories, media workflows that need both file-level access on-prem and object-level processing in AWS.

Volume Gateway

Volume Gateway presents iSCSI block storage volumes, usable by any OS or hypervisor that supports iSCSI. It runs in two sub-modes:

Cached volumes: the primary data lives in S3; only recently accessed blocks are cached locally. Good for volumes larger than your local disk.
Stored volumes: the full dataset lives on local disk, and S3 holds asynchronous, point-in-time backups (as EBS snapshots). Good for applications that need the entire working set available locally at all times.

# Create a cached iSCSI volume, 500 GiB
aws storagegateway create-cached-iscsi-volume \
  --gateway-arn "arn:aws:storagegateway:us-east-1:123456789012:gateway/sgw-1234ABCD" \
  --volume-size-in-bytes 536870912000 \
  --target-name "database-vol-01" \
  --network-interface-id "10.0.1.25" \
  --client-token "db-vol-01-token"

Tape Gateway

Tape Gateway emulates a virtual tape library (VTL) that your existing backup software (Veeam, NetBackup, Commvault, etc.) already knows how to talk to. Virtual tapes write to S3 and can be archived to S3 Glacier or Glacier Deep Archive for long-term retention — letting you decommission physical tape infrastructure while keeping the exact same backup workflow and retention policy your compliance team already signed off on.

Why Businesses Use Storage Gateway

Backup consolidation — Centralize backups from multiple branch offices into a single durable, versioned S3-based store without re-architecting backup jobs.

Disaster recovery staging — Keep a warm, continuously updated copy of critical file data in AWS so recovery doesn't start from a cold tape restore.

Tiered file access — Combine fast local access for active files with S3 Lifecycle rules that automatically move cold data to S3 Glacier, cutting storage costs without manual intervention.

Tape retirement — Eliminate the operational burden of physical tape rotation, offsite shipping, and hardware failure risk, while preserving existing backup software investments.

Diagram: Storage Gateway Hybrid Architecture

<svg viewBox="0 0 760 360" xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" role="img" aria-label="AWS Storage Gateway hybrid architecture diagram">
  <style>
    text { font-family: -apple-system, Segoe UI, Roboto, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; fill: currentColor; }
    .box { fill: none; stroke: currentColor; stroke-width: 1.5; rx: 8; }
    .arrow { stroke: currentColor; stroke-width: 1.5; fill: none; marker-end: url(#arrowhead); }
    .label { font-size: 11px; opacity: 0.75; }
  </style>
  <defs>
    <marker id="arrowhead" markerWidth="10" markerHeight="10" refX="8" refY="3" orient="auto">
      <path d="M0,0 L8,3 L0,6 Z" fill="currentColor" />
    </marker>
  </defs>

  <rect x="20" y="40" width="300" height="260" class="box" />
  <text x="40" y="65" font-weight="600">On-Premises Data Center</text>

  <rect x="50" y="90" width="240" height="60" class="box" />
  <text x="70" y="115">File Server / Backup Software</text>
  <text x="70" y="135" class="label">NFS / SMB / iSCSI</text>

  <rect x="50" y="180" width="240" height="90" class="box" />
  <text x="70" y="205" font-weight="600">Storage Gateway VM</text>
  <text x="70" y="225" class="label">Local disk cache</text>
  <text x="70" y="245" class="label">TLS upload to AWS</text>

  <path class="arrow" d="M170,150 L170,180" />

  <path class="arrow" d="M290,225 L430,225" />
  <text x="300" y="215" class="label">HTTPS / Multipart</text>

  <rect x="440" y="40" width="300" height="260" class="box" />
  <text x="460" y="65" font-weight="600">AWS Cloud</text>

  <rect x="470" y="90" width="240" height="60" class="box" />
  <text x="490" y="115">Amazon S3</text>
  <text x="490" y="135" class="label">File / Volume data</text>

  <rect x="470" y="170" width="240" height="60" class="box" />
  <text x="490" y="195">Amazon EBS Snapshots</text>
  <text x="490" y="215" class="label">Stored volume backups</text>

  <rect x="470" y="250" width="240" height="40" class="box" />
  <text x="490" y="275">S3 Glacier (Tape archive)</text>
</svg>

FAQ

What is AWS Storage Gateway used for? It connects on-premises applications and backup software to AWS storage services (S3, EBS, Glacier) using standard protocols, so you get cloud durability and cost benefits without rewriting application code.

Is AWS Storage Gateway the same as a cloud storage gateway in general? AWS Storage Gateway is AWS's specific implementation of the broader "cloud storage gateway" category — a device or VM that translates local storage protocols into cloud object storage calls. Other vendors offer similar products, but Storage Gateway is natively integrated with S3, IAM, and CloudWatch.

What's the difference between File, Volume, and Tape Gateway? File Gateway exposes NFS/SMB shares mapped to S3 objects. Volume Gateway presents iSCSI block volumes (cached or stored). Tape Gateway emulates a virtual tape library for existing backup software.

Can I use Storage Gateway for disaster recovery? Yes — it's commonly used to keep a continuously synced copy of on-prem file or volume data in AWS, so recovery can start from a recent cloud copy instead of a cold backup restore.

Get Help Designing Your Hybrid Storage Strategy

Migrating backup, file, or tape workflows to AWS Storage Gateway touches networking, IAM permissions, and data lifecycle policy all at once. F9infotech's AWS consulting team can assess your current storage footprint and design a Storage Gateway deployment that fits your RPO/RTO targets — talk to our cloud architects about your migration.