An Architect's vision

 

Use Cases of General Purpose (gp2) EBS volume • Recommended for most workloads • System boot volumes • Virtual desktops Low-latency interactive apps   Use Cases of Provisioned IOPS (PIOPS) EBS volume • Critical business applications that require sustained IOPS performance, or more than 10,000 IOPS or 160 MiB/s of throughput per volume • Large database workloads   Use Cases of Hard Disk (st1) EBS volume •Streaming workloads requiring consistent, fast throughput at a low price •Big data •Data warehouses •Log processing •Cannot be a boot volume

There are four different types of EBS volumes ·          Provisioned IOPS SSD (io1) Volumes.             Highest-performance SSD volume designed for mission-critical applications ·          General Purpose SSD (gp2) Volumes. General purpose SSD volume that balances price and performance for a wide variety of transactional workloads ·          Throughput Optimized HDD (st1) Volumes. Low cost HDD volume designed for frequently accessed, throughput intensive workloads   ·          Cold HDD (sc1) Volumes.    

File Storage Use Cases Despite what it lacks, file-level storage makes sense for a wide variety of scenarios, including: File sharing:   If you just need a place to store and share files in the office, the simplicity of file-level storage is where it’s at. Local archiving:   The ability to seamlessly accommodate scalability with a scale-out NAS solution makes file-level storage a cost effective option for archiving files in a small data center environment. Data protection:   Combined with easy deployment, support for standard protocols, native replication, and various drive technologies makes file-level storage a viable data protection solution. Block Storage Use Cases The unique ability to create volumes that essentially act as hard drives makes block storage useful for a wide range of applications, including: Databases:   Block storage is common in databases and other mission-critical applications that demand consistently high performance. Email s...

NAS: Good at secure file sharing. Can become siloed. Scale-out NAS potentially good at scale. Bad at extreme scale. SAN: Good at transactional and database workloads. Can be expensive. SAN and NAS: Both can come with advanced storage features, such as replication. Both can be relatively costly compared with object storage on commodity hardware, although both SAN and NAS software-defined storage are available. Both lack the rich metadata of object storage. Object storage: Very scalable, suited to unstructured data and large datasets, potentially good for analytics via rich metadata. Lacks high-end performance and data protection is slow across clusters. Can be very cost-efficient, hardware-wise.

OBJECT STORAGE FILE STORAGE PERFORMANCE Performs best for big content and high stream throughput Performs best for smaller files GEOGRAPHY Data can be stored across multiple regions Data typically needs to be shared locally SCALABILITY Scales infinitely to petabytes and beyond Potentially scales up to millions of files, but can’t handle more ANALYTICS Customizable metadata, not limited to number of tags Limited number of set metadata tags

Server Message Block(SMB) , one version of which was also known as   Common Internet File System (CIFS)   is a protocol for sharing files, printers, serial ports, and miscellaneous communications between nodes on a network. File Transfer Protocol (FTP)   is a standard network protocol used for the transfer of computer files between a client and server on a computer network. FTP is built on a client-server model   Though both are file sharing, application layer protocols here are few differences between them- SMB is a "real" file sharing tool but it relies on a "virtual network" implementation that makes it impossible to limit it's functionality on the TCP/IP level. SMB is firewall-unfriendly. It's also more or less limited to the windows platform only. (For UNIX systems Samba is available.) SMB uses a LOT of short messages which makes it VERY sensible to network latency. FTP’s main advantage is that since it's so OLD and UNIVERSAL,you can fin...

The business needs include security, automation, High Availability (HA), compliance, and auditing.   Security When security and compliance are high priorities, MFT solutions do more than simply secure files while they’re being transferred. Standard security features in MFT solutions include: ·          Support for secure protocols and refusal of unsecure connections ·          Encryption for stored data and the assurance that unencrypted versions of the file are never written to the server ·          Perimeter security, such as a reverse proxy that operates as a pass through and does not temporarily store data ·          Support for the current versions of privacy standards, such as PCI v3.1 and HIPAA ·          The ability to support security...

It depends on the security / risk appetite of the organization. FTP servers, and the more secure SFTP Server software, perform 2 basic tasks:  “Put” and “Get.” You can put files on the FTP Server or get files from the FTP Server. If security is not a concern, FTP Server software is an easy and inexpensive way to accomplish this. If you have remote employees who need to upload non-confidential reports, or if you want to allow your customers to download white papers and documentation, an FTP Server works well for this purpose. If you are exchanging non-sensitive data with business partners, and the partner requires FTP or SFTP, you can quickly set up a server that will accept their data transfer. if you handle credit card data, you will need to be PCI compliant and will want reporting tools to assure ongoing compliance. Medical records require HIPAA compliance. And overall security policies and practices are becoming a great focus in all businesses. This is all beyon...

According to Gartner, a well-rounded managed file transfer suite should have four components: ·          A  server  for management of all aspects of file transfer: communications channels,  multiple  protocols , workflow,  provisioning ,  APIs , etc. ·          A  client  for tight server integration. ·          A  proxy  to conceal  IP address  and  ports . ·          Plug-ins  to integrate with applications.

MFT applications are characterized by having all or most of the following features: Support multiple file transfer protocols including   FTP/S ,   OFTP ,   SFTP ,   SCP ,   AS2 , and   HTTP/S . Securely transfer files over public and private networks using encrypted file transfer protocols. Securely store files using multiple   data encryption   methods Automate file transfer processes between trading partners and exchanges including detection and handling of failed file transfers. Authenticate users against existing user repositories such as   LDAP   and   Active Directory Integrate to existing applications using documented APIs ( application programming interfaces ) Generate detailed reports on user and file transfer activity.

Managed File Transfer (MFT) is server software that performs secure data transfers, with added features that provide automation, validation, and reporting. MFT servers ensure that file exchanges with other systems and servers, as well as with end users, are accomplished with minimum manual effort and maximum accountability.   MFT servers include advanced visibility to monitor data access, to curb unauthorized access, and to provide proper auditing. MFT servers are often employed in clustered networks, to provide high availability and failover so data will always be available, even in the event of hardware failure. MFT product features aim to meet strict regulatory compliance standards and federal regulations such as HIPAA and PCI.     MFT servers are used by hospitals, credit agencies, and other enterprises where security of data is of utmost importance. These are organizations which require not only that files are transferred securely, but also that ...