Tape Gateway

Tape Gateway presents a virtual tape library over iSCSI: a virtual media changer and virtual tapes that existing backup software drives exactly as it drives physical hardware. The tapes are stored in Amazon S3 and archived into S3 Glacier. See the Storage Gateway overview for how it compares with the file and volume types.

The point is that nothing above the gateway changes. The backup jobs, retention policies, catalogue and operator runbooks stay as they are; what disappears is the tape library, the media, the off-site collection contract and the person who swaps cartridges.

Where the tapes live

• Active tapes — in the virtual tape library, backed by Amazon S3, available for immediate read and write.
• Archived tapes — moved to the virtual tape shelf, backed by S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval or S3 Glacier Deep Archive. Retrieval takes time in proportion to how cheap the storage class is, so the choice between the two is a restore-time decision, not just a cost one.

Data is encrypted in transit with TLS and at rest in S3.

flowchart LR subgraph OnPrem["On-premises"] BKP[Backup software] TGW[Tape Gateway] CACHE[(Cache storage)] end subgraph AWS["AWS Cloud"] S3[(Amazon S3<br/>virtual tape library)] GFR[S3 Glacier Flexible Retrieval] GDA[S3 Glacier Deep Archive] end BKP -->|iSCSI VTL| TGW TGW <--> CACHE TGW -->|Upload virtual tapes| S3 S3 -->|Archive| GFR S3 -->|Archive| GDA style TGW fill:#FF9900,stroke:#232F3E,color:white style S3 fill:#3F8624,stroke:#232F3E,color:white

What it is good for

• Long-term retention where the obligation is regulatory and restores are rare
• Retiring a physical tape estate without re-tendering the backup software
• Removing the operational cost and failure modes of media handling, while keeping durability and encryption that a courier van cannot offer

Check the backup product against the compatibility list in the AWS documentation before planning the migration — Tape Gateway supports the major vendors, but the supported versions move.