By design FlexApp can integrate with and bend around any storage design selection based on enterprise requirements. This is no different for the integration with the AppStream platform. Enterprise administrators can decide which storage approach makes sense for them and FlexApp can bend around those decisions. Here is some basic guidance around the various storage choices.
FlexApp and Traditional Windows Storage
The fastest storage option for FlexApp packages is often traditional Windows file shares because the enterprise administrator can just leverage a share directly from a server that is readily available in the same EC2 region. For some enterprises, this approach might be enough for a production rollout depending upon requirements. As FlexApp integrates with Amazon AppStream, those requirements often expand beyond the capabilities of a traditional Windows file share. At which point, the enterprise can consider some of the options below.
FlexApp and S3
Cloud Object Storage with Amazon S3 is clearly the standard best practice moving forward based on the durability, security, redundancy, and management included by default.
“Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) is the largest and most performant, secure, and feature-rich object storage service. With Amazon S3, organizations of all sizes and industries can store any amount of data for any use case, including applications, IoT, data lakes, analytics, backup and restore, archive, and disaster recovery. Amazon S3 is designed for 99.999999999% durability to protect data from site-level failures, errors, and threats, so that it is available to your end users and applications at all times.” Amazon S3 Overview
For additional information about S3 and FlexApp, refer to the following resources:
- Amazon S3 Getting Started Guide
- Creating S3 buckets
- S3 Permission Guidance
- Using Cloud Storage with ProfileUnity
FlexApp and FSx from Amazon
Another intriguing option for cloud-based storage within Amazon is the FSx platform. This allows the enterprise to essentially host traditional SMB type file shares in the cloud.
“Amazon FSx provides fully managed third-party file systems. Amazon FSx provides you with the native compatibility of third-party file systems with feature sets for workloads such as Windows-based storage, high-performance computing (HPC), machine learning, and electronic design automation (EDA). You don’t have to worry about managing file servers and storage, as Amazon FSx automates the time-consuming administration tasks such as hardware provisioning, software configuration, patching, and backups. Amazon FSx integrates the file systems with cloud-native AWS services, making them even more useful for a broader set of workloads.” Amazon FSx Overview
How It Works
FlexApp packages integrate with the FSx file shares the same way they integrate with traditional on-prem Windows files shares. The difference is, now you have the robust, state-of-the-art Amazon scalable infrastructure behind them.
