Amazon Web Services (AWS) is making its move into the private data centre with the announcement of its AWS Storage Gateway.
The idea behind the product is to enable businesses with their own data centres to connect to AWS' cloud through software installed onto commodity hardware in-house.
From there, they can replicate their data onto Amazon's Simple Storage Service (S3), and, over a set period, move to cache all their files in the cloud.
The Storage Gateway attaches via iSCSI interfaces and transfers data using the SSL protocol, where it is then encrypted within S3.
It is aimed at companies wanting to run back-up or disaster recovery in the public cloud, with volumes of 12TB available.
However, there is also access to Amazon's Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2). This will enable companies who just need to burst out into the cloud for specific projects to take advantage of the extra power a the public cloud can provide.
Customers wanting to trial the Storage Gateway can get 60 days for free, after which it will cost $125 (80) per month per gateway. Businesses in Europe will also be able to adhere to regulations by backing up to Amazon's Dublin data centre.
