AWS re:Invent 2025 - Optimizing storage costs for Amazon EVS with FSx for ONTAP (MAM101)

Optimizing Storage Costs for Amazon EVS with FSx for ONTAP

Overview of Amazon Elastic VMware Service (EVS)

• EVS is the fastest and easiest way to run VMware environments in the AWS cloud
• It provides full control and choice in how to operate the VMware stack in the cloud
• EVS allows customers to either manage the environment themselves or leverage AWS partners for migration, management, and automation

Key Features of EVS

• Automated deployment in 3 hours with a full VMware stack (vSphere, NSX, SDDC)
• Supports i3.metal instances for compute and storage
• Customers must provide their own VMware licensing and subscriptions
• Flexible consumption options (on-demand, 1-year, 3-year)
• Default storage is provided by VSAN on the i3.metal instances

Introduction to Amazon FSx for ONTAP

• FSx for ONTAP is the only AWS-native storage service certified for Amazon EVS
• It provides enterprise-grade file, block, and object storage capabilities in the cloud
• Key features include:
  • Multi-protocol access (NFS, SMB, S3)
  • High availability and data resilience with snapshots
  • Advanced data security features (encryption, access control, immutable storage)
  • Storage efficiency through deduplication, compression, and tiering

Integrating FSx for ONTAP with Amazon EVS

• FSx for ONTAP can be used as a supplemental data store for EVS, accessible via NFS or iSCSI
• It can also be used as guest-attached storage, mounted directly to EVS VMs
• This allows customers to decouple compute and storage resources, providing more flexibility

Lowering Total Cost of Ownership

1. Storage Scaling: FSx for ONTAP allows independent scaling of storage capacity and performance, avoiding the need to add unnecessary compute resources.
2. Storage Efficiency: FSx for ONTAP provides built-in data reduction features like deduplication, compression, and compaction, which can reduce storage footprint by up to 70%.
3. Decoupling Compute and Storage: By using FSx for ONTAP as a supplemental data store, customers can scale storage independently of compute, leading to significant cost savings.

Improving SLAs and VM Backups

• Using FSx for ONTAP for VM backups provides several advantages over using VSAN:
  • Backups are performed at the storage layer, offloading the ESXi hosts
  • Snapshots are instantaneous and incur no performance penalty
  • Data is replicated using Snapshot Mirroring, which is efficient and secure

Operational Consistency Between On-Premises and Cloud

• FSx for ONTAP allows customers to use the same storage management tools and practices in the cloud as they do on-premises
• This preserves investments in automation, scripts, and integrations, reducing the need for retraining and rewriting applications

Disaster Recovery Scenario

• FSx for ONTAP enables a cost-effective disaster recovery solution for EVS:
  • Maintain a minimal "pilot light" EVS cluster and FSx for ONTAP storage in the cloud
  • Rapidly scale up compute and storage resources when needed during a failover
  • Leverage Snapshot Mirroring to efficiently replicate data between on-premises and cloud
  • Shrink the cloud footprint when failing back to on-premises

Workload Factory Tool

• Workload Factory is a free tool developed by AWS and NetApp to help plan and migrate VMware workloads to EVS and FSx for ONTAP
• Key features:
  • TCO calculator to estimate costs for different EVS and FSx for ONTAP configurations
  • Automated deployment of FSx for ONTAP data stores with best practices

Key Takeaways

• FSx for ONTAP provides enterprise-grade storage capabilities that integrate seamlessly with Amazon EVS
• Decoupling compute and storage with FSx for ONTAP can lead to significant cost savings by avoiding unnecessary compute resources
• FSx for ONTAP enables consistent storage management practices between on-premises and cloud environments
• The disaster recovery scenario leveraging FSx for ONTAP allows for a cost-effective and scalable cloud-based DR solution
• Workload Factory is a free tool that simplifies planning, deployment, and migration of VMware workloads to EVS and FSx for ONTAP