Amazon is announcing the public preview of AWS DataSync Discovery. This new feature of AWS DataSync enables users to better understand on-premises storage usage through automated data collection and analysis, quickly identify data to migrate, and evaluate recommended AWS Storage services for data.
Data migration is the process in which data is transferred between systems. These transfer systems can be data storage types or file formats. Data from the old system is transferred to a new system through a particular mapping pattern. Mapping patterns contain designs for data extraction as well as data load activities. The design acts as a translator between the old data formats and the new system formats, thereby ensuring smoother data migration.
Planning and migrating data to the cloud can be a significant undertaking, involving time and effort to collect information about the storage and then trying to map it. AWS DataSync Discovery helps to simplify migration planning and accelerate the data migration to AWS by giving visibility into the on-premises storage performance and utilization, and providing recommendations for data migration to AWS Storage services.
DataSync Discovery uses a DataSync agent to connect to on-premises storage and automatically collect information such as performance metrics and capacity utilization over time. An agent is a virtual machine or Amazon EC2 instance that AWS DataSync uses to read from or write to a storage system. Agents are commonly used when copying data from on-premises storage to AWS. DataSync Discovery uses the information collected to generate recommendations and estimated costs for AWS Storage services such as Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, and Amazon Elastic File System (EFS).
Today, there are plenty of tools to facilitate enterprise data migrations. These include vendor-specific solutions offered by cloud providers to support their customers’ move into their public or private cloud environment, as well as licensed and open source tools.
Cloud migration is the fastest-growing type of data migration. It involves moving on-premises data or applications to a cloud environment. Common options include public clouds, private clouds, and hybrid clouds, although some organizations also use multi-cloud environments. Migrating to the cloud enables organizations to scale with fewer limitations, provision resources more readily, upgrade with less fiction, spend more effectively, and innovate more rapidly. With their data and applications residing in the cloud, those organizations are no longer required to maintain the machines and infrastructure that were storing those assets on-premises.