AWS offers a wide variety of AI and machine learning (ML), analytics, and serverless compute services that are integrated with Amazon S3 storage. This poses a challenge for organizations that have the relevant data stored elsewhere.
Up until now, the only way to make file data accessible to these AWS services was to copy the data to Amazon S3 buckets. While this makes it possible to use the AWS services, such data duplication needs to be carefully planned and carried out with precision, both of which can take time, adding cost and complexity for customers.
Now there’s a gamechanger: NetApp® and AWS recently announced that Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP supports access to FSx for ONTAP file data as if it were in Amazon S3, transforming how businesses can leverage file data for AWS services. Read the Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP announcement here.
This capability makes your FSx for ONTAP file data accessible to a broad range of Amazon S3-integrated AWS services through the Amazon S3 API, all while remaining accessible using Network-Attached Storage (NAS) protocols. This new functionality eliminates the need to copy data to Amazon S3, which simplifies workflows and accelerates innovation across industries. In this post, we explore why this matters and how it delivers value in several industry use cases.
Read on as we cover:
- Why Amazon S3 access matters now
- Use cases for Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP
- Gaining healthcare data insights
- Financial fraud detection
- AI-driven engineering workflows
- Log analytics for Media and Entertainment operations
- Connected vehicle analytics
- The benefits of Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP across industries
- Traditional Amazon S3 workflows versus Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP
- Take the next step into Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP
Why Amazon S3 access matters now
Organizations are accelerating innovation on AWS by building data-driven applications that rely heavily on Amazon S3 for AI, analytics, and serverless workflows. Until now, customers with large file-based datasets, both on premises or on AWS, faced the complex process of copying data to Amazon S3 buckets for specialized AI, analytics, and serverless services to access the data.
Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP offers another solution. With file data stored on FSx for ONTAP simultaneously accessible through multiple protocols—Network File System (NFS), Server Message Block (SMB), and Amazon S3 protocols—AWS services such as Amazon Bedrock, Amazon SageMaker, and Amazon Athena can directly consume data without data migration, duplication, or continuous synchronization in place, without copying data or refactoring applications.
The Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP capability is critical for extracting maximum value from file-based datasets. Now it’s possible to roll out new AI-powered applications and analytics solutions rapidly and securely, helping companies stay competitive in a fast-moving digital economy.
Use cases for Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP
Here are some example use cases for Amazon S3 access with FSx for ONTAP that show how several industries can gain the benefits of AWS services.
Gaining healthcare data insights
Healthcare providers need to analyze electronic medical record (EMR) files for population health insights. A large portion of the data that is created by EMR systems is in file format. Moving this sensitive data to Amazon S3 buckets for analysis can introduce security risks, violate regulatory requirements, and increase operational complexity and delays.
How it works:
With Amazon S3 access, teams can set up direct access to EMR files that are stored in FSx for ONTAP. This makes it possible for Amazon Athena to perform SQL queries directly on the data contained in the files. Because the file data is unstructured, the company can use AWS Glue to transform the data without requiring any infrastructure or workflows.
You can see here how Amazon S3 access through FSx for ONTAP makes medical data analytics simpler and more secure:
Benefits:
- Faster insights for patient care
- Improved alignment with security and regulatory requirements
- Reduced infrastructure complexity
- Faster time to market (TTM)
Financial fraud detection
Financial institutions need to detect fraud and assess risk using large volumes of transactional data. Migrating this data to Amazon S3 buckets for AI model training is an extra step that can be time consuming and costly. Making sure that data stays aligned with regulatory security and privacy requirements is also a concern.
How it works:
FSx for ONTAP with Amazon S3 access allows fraud detection models to train directly on live production datasets using Amazon Fraud Detector, without data migration or duplication. Here’s what faster and more accurate fraud detection looks like:
Benefits:
- Faster fraud detection
- Improved risk management
- Enhanced customer trust
AI-driven engineering workflows
Electronic design automation (EDA) companies deal with massive design files. That makes it challenging for teams to access AWS services that can be used for AI-based design and defect prediction. EDA teams face delays and high costs due to the required data migration to Amazon S3 buckets.
How it works:
FSx for ONTAP with Amazon S3 access eliminates the need for data migration and duplication. Engineers can use existing file datasets directly with Amazon Bedrock, accelerating model training and deployment.
Here you can see the faster chip design workflows visualized:
Benefits:
- Faster product development cycles
- Reduced infrastructure costs
- Improved design quality through AI-driven insights
Log analytics for Media and Entertainment operations
In the fields of media and entertainment (M&E) and gaming, applications can generate huge amounts of log data daily. Traditional workflows require copying these logs to Amazon S3 buckets for analysis with services such as Amazon OpenSearch Service, creating operational overhead and delays.
How it works:
With Amazon S3 access, logs stored on FSx for ONTAP volumes are instantly available to OpenSearch without data migration or duplication. This simplifies pipelines and real-time analytics. Here you can see how FSx for ONTAP with Amazon S3 access improves reliability and enables faster error management:
Benefits:
- Improved system reliability
- Faster incident resolution
- Reduced operational costs
Connected vehicle analytics
Automotive manufacturers collect telemetry and sensor data from thousands of devices. The traditional extract-transform-and-load (ETL) processes that are used to move this data into S3 buckets can slow down analytics and decision making.
How it works:
With Amazon S3 access, AWS services can directly access telemetry files that are stored in FSx for ONTAP. That makes it possible for services such as Amazon Quick Sight to provide real-time analysis for dashboards and Amazon SageMaker to train AI models on telemetry data.
Here you can see an example of how data can be used in the creation of real-time dashboards and for predictive maintenance:
Benefits:
- Faster access to data that fuels operational dashboards and predictive maintenance
- Improved access to data for analysis helps predict potential faults and prevent them
The benefits of Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP across industries
Amazon S3 access to FSx for ONTAP opens a wide range of benefits that are applicable across many different verticals:
- Accelerated innovation and TTM
Enabling direct access from AWS services to FSx for ONTAP file data removes the delays traditionally associated with data movement and transformation. Teams can run analytics, train models, or launch applications against existing file data without waiting for migration tasks to complete. That helps accelerate development timelines and get products to market faster.
- Reduced operational complexity
By removing the requirements to migrate file-based datasets to Amazon S3 and keep them continuously synchronized, organizations gain operational efficiency and reduce the burden on infrastructure and DevOps teams. This simplification speeds up project lifecycles and helps teams shift focus from integration tasks to innovation.
- Eliminating duplicate data reduces costs
Accessing file data directly from FSx for ONTAP eliminates the need to maintain multiple copies of the same dataset across environments. This not only cuts storage costs but also reduces administrative overhead and the risks associated with version drift or data inconsistency.
- Support for hybrid cloud strategies
Many organizations store high-value file data in on-premises ONTAP® systems. By using NetApp SnapMirror® replication technology, this data can be seamlessly mirrored to FSx for ONTAP. Amazon S3 access then makes that data immediately available to a growing ecosystem of AWS-native services, without requiring additional movement or transformation.
Traditional Amazon S3 workflows versus Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP
|
Workflow step |
Traditional approach |
Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP |
|
Data location |
Files must be copied to Amazon S3 buckets |
|
|
Preparation time |
Manual data movement and transformation required |
Immediate access without transformation |
|
Integration with AWS services |
Limited until data is in Amazon S3 |
Native access for Amazon services |
|
Security and governance |
Risk of data exposure in buckets |
Keeps sensitive data within FSx for ONTAP and its security features |
|
Operational complexity |
Requires coordination across storage, networking, and security teams |
Simplified, direct integration from existing storage workflows |
|
Time to insight or deployment |
Delayed by data migration |
Accelerated access means faster TTM |
|
Costs |
Data must be duplicated in the Amazon S3 bucket, which includes ongoing transfer and data storage costs. |
The original dataset stored on FSx for ONTAP is accessed directly |
Take the next step into Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP
Direct Amazon S3 access for data in FSx for ONTAP represents a pivotal shift for organizations working with cutting-edge AWS services.
By eliminating the need for time-consuming migrations and enabling native data access for the analytics, AI, and serverless services on AWS, FSx for ONTAP is helping teams innovate faster by reducing operational overhead, and maximizing value. Whether you're building AI applications, running analytics, or optimizing hybrid architectures, FSx for ONTAP now brings Amazon S3 compatibility to where your data already lives.
Learn how to start using the Amazon S3 Access Points for FSx for ONTAP capability.