| Feature / Service | AWS File Gateway | AWS DataSync | AWS DMS (Database Migration Service) |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Hybrid cloud file gateway for on-prem → AWS | High-speed data transfer service | Managed service for database migration & replication |
| Data type | Files (NFS, SMB) → stored as S3 objects | Files & objects (NFS, SMB, HDFS, object stores, AWS services) | Structured data (databases, schemas, tables) |
| Typical use case | Ongoing hybrid storage: apps write to a file share, data lands in S3 | Bulk/recurring transfer of large file datasets (TB–PB) to AWS or between AWS services/regions | Migrate relational/NoSQL databases to AWS with minimal downtime |
| On-premises support | Yes (acts like a local file server) | Yes (agent deployed on-premises) | Yes (connects to on-prem DBs) |
| AWS-to-AWS transfers | ❌ Not really (only works with S3 backend) | ✅ Yes (S3↔S3, S3↔EFS, EFS↔FSx, cross-region, cross-account) | ✅ Yes (RDS↔RDS, cross-region DB replication, cross-account DB migration) |
| Protocols supported | SMB, NFS | SMB, NFS, HDFS, object APIs, AWS APIs | DB-native protocols (SQL, JDBC/ODBC) |
| Ongoing replication | ✅ Continuous (files cached locally + synced to S3) | ✅ Scheduled or continuous sync | ✅ Continuous replication with CDC (Change Data Capture) |
| Best for | Hybrid file access + transparent cloud archiving | High-throughput migrations of unstructured data (files, objects) | Migrating/replicating databases with minimal downtime |
| Not good for | One-time bulk migrations | Structured DB data | File/object storage migration |
File Gateway → best if you want apps to keep using file shares but store data in S3 transparently.
DataSync → best if you want to migrate/sync large-scale file datasets (on-prem ↔ AWS or AWS ↔ AWS).
DMS → best if you need to migrate databases (Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server, MongoDB, etc.) with schema + ongoing replication.
👉 Together, they cover most migration needs:
File Gateway = hybrid ongoing file access
DataSync = bulk/periodic unstructured data migration
DMS = structured database migration
🔹 AWS DataSync
Purpose: File-level or object-level data transfer.
Source/Target: On-premises storage (NFS, SMB, HDFS, object stores) and AWS storage services (S3, EFS, FSx).
Use cases:
Migrate file shares into AWS.
Move petabytes of files across AWS services/regions.
Periodic sync of file-based data.
Not for structured databases (it doesn’t understand schemas, tables, SQL).
🔹 AWS DMS (Database Migration Service)
Purpose: Migrate and replicate databases.
Source/Target:
Relational databases (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, MariaDB, Aurora, etc.)
Some NoSQL (MongoDB, DynamoDB).
Data warehouses (Redshift, Snowflake via partners).
Use cases:
Lift-and-shift database migration into AWS.
Cross-region or cross-account replication of databases.
Schema conversion + ongoing replication (for heterogeneous migrations with AWS SCT).
Key feature: Supports CDC (Change Data Capture) — keeps the target DB in sync with the source until cutover.
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