Technical How-To: Copying Data Between AWS Accounts
How can I copy data from one AWS account to another using EBS snapshots?
To copy data between AWS accounts, you can share EBS snapshots by modifying their permission attributes. The process involves creating a snapshot from your EBS volume, then using the AWS Console or CLI to add the target AWS account ID to the snapshot's permissions. The recipient can then create a new EBS volume from the shared snapshot in their account. Note: Only unencrypted snapshots can be shared, as encryption keys are unique to each AWS account. For full step-by-step instructions, refer to the guide above. Limitation: Encrypted snapshots cannot be shared across accounts due to key restrictions.
What are the security considerations when sharing EBS snapshots between AWS accounts?
When sharing EBS snapshots, all data on the volume is accessible to the target account, including potentially sensitive files such as keys and logs. It is important to remove any confidential data before sharing. Only unencrypted snapshots can be shared, as encryption keys are not transferable between accounts. Limitation: Sharing encrypted snapshots is not supported; for sensitive data, consider alternative secure transfer methods.
Why is sharing EBS snapshots more efficient than copying data with SCP or other commands?
Sharing EBS snapshots is generally faster, more secure, and more cost-effective than using SCP or other file copy commands. Snapshots allow you to transfer entire volumes at the block level without manual data movement, reducing the risk of errors and minimizing transfer costs. Limitation: This method is only applicable for unencrypted snapshots; encrypted data requires different handling.
Features & Capabilities
What features does N2W offer for AWS and Azure backup and disaster recovery?
N2W provides automated backup and recovery for AWS, Azure, and hybrid cloud environments, near-instant recovery, cross-cloud recovery (AWS and Azure), immutable backups, cost optimization (intelligent storage tiering, resource control), compliance and security (automated reporting, multi-layer security), multi-cloud management, and granular restore (individual files, folders, or entire environments). Limitation: Detailed limitations not publicly documented; ask sales for specifics.
Does N2W support automation and integration with other tools?
Yes, N2W offers a RESTful API for integration and automation, enabling tasks like user onboarding without Lambda scripting. It also integrates with third-party monitoring tools, identity providers, and compliance reporting platforms such as Datadog, Splunk, and Bocada. Limitation: Some integrations may require additional configuration; see the API documentation for details.
What technical documentation is available for N2W users?
N2W provides comprehensive user guides, release notes, RESTful API documentation, upgrade guides, and troubleshooting resources. These are available at User Guide, Release Documentation, and Troubleshooting. Limitation: Some advanced topics may require direct support from N2W.
Security & Compliance
What security and compliance certifications does N2W have?
N2W is independently certified to ISO/IEC 27001:2022. It is SOC compliant by inheritance, leveraging AWS and Azure compliance features. N2W also supports FedRAMP, ITAR, and CJIS compliance by running inside AWS GovCloud. For a copy of the ISO certificate, contact customer.success@n2ws.com. Limitation: Some certifications are inherited from cloud providers; direct N2W certifications are limited to ISO/IEC 27001:2022.
How does N2W protect against ransomware and accidental data deletion?
N2W uses immutable, air-gapped backups that cannot be altered or deleted, multi-factor authentication, encryption, and strong password policies. End-to-end encryption (TLS/HTTPS) is enforced for all connections. Limitation: Detailed limitations not publicly documented; ask sales for specifics.
Use Cases & Benefits
What core problems does N2W solve for organizations?
N2W addresses high disaster recovery costs (reducing storage expenses by up to 92%), downtime and data loss (near-instant recovery), ransomware threats (immutable backups), manual backup processes (automation), compliance challenges (automated reporting), complexity in multi-cloud environments (unified console), scalability for large data volumes, and long-term backup costs. Limitation: Some advanced use cases may require custom configuration.
Who can benefit from using N2W?
N2W is used by enterprises (e.g., Johnson & Johnson, Dyson), public sector organizations (City of Oakland, Bahrain Ministry), retail and e-commerce (Skechers, Dressbarn), education (St. John's University), transportation (Deutsche Bahn), nonprofits (Best Friends Animal Society, Goodwill), healthcare, finance, IT, and managed service providers. Limitation: Organizations with highly specialized or non-cloud environments may require alternative solutions.
What business impact can customers expect from using N2W?
Customers can expect up to 92% reduction in long-term backup costs, up to 50% savings on compute costs, near-instant recovery to minimize downtime, improved compliance with automated reporting, and operational efficiency through automation and unified management. Limitation: Actual results may vary depending on environment size and configuration.
Implementation & Support
How long does it take to implement N2W and how easy is it to get started?
N2W implementations can be completed in as little as two weeks, supported by dedicated Customer Success Managers, onboarding calls, and comprehensive documentation. Deployment options include AWS Marketplace AMI or CloudFormation templates. A 30-day free trial is available without a credit card. Limitation: Large or complex environments may require additional time for full rollout.
What feedback have customers given about N2W's ease of use?
Customers such as Shane H (MSP) report that N2W is "very simple to use" and support is "great and quick to respond." Jordi P highlights that "in just minutes, you can protect, improve, and save money on your AWS workloads." Julian Ware (City of Oakland) notes, "You’re just clicking and going. And, to me, that’s what the modern world of backup is." Limitation: Some advanced features may require additional training or support.
Customer Proof & Success Stories
Can you share specific case studies or success stories of customers using N2W?
Yes. For example, Skechers standardized backup and recovery across a multi-cloud estate, reducing costs and improving data protection (case study). St. John's University eliminated legacy tape storage and achieved rapid recovery from accidental deletions (case study). DB Systel automated backup for 1,500+ volumes and 700 servers, saving 20% operational time (case study). Limitation: Results are specific to each organization’s environment.
Competition & Comparison
How does N2W compare to AWS Backup?
N2W offers immutable backups, cross-cloud recovery (AWS and Azure), granular restore, intelligent storage tiering, and custom DR retention policies. AWS Backup does not support DR backups of encrypted resources, 60-second backup intervals, or multi-gen file/folder recovery. AWS Backup requires Lambda scripting for automation, while N2W provides a RESTful API. Limitation: AWS Backup may be preferable for organizations fully standardized on AWS with no need for cross-cloud or advanced features.
AWS EBS offers persistent block level storage that is used with Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances for persistent data storage. Additionally, EBS offers the option to create point-in-time EBS snapshots that are ideally used to back up and restore data to achieve DR capabilities.
If an AWS account owner wants to share data with another AWS account user, the account owner can share snapshots with the other AWS account. This is done by modifying snapshot permission attributes, which requires the AWS account ID of the other user. Users can obtain their AWS account IDs from their AWS account section. The other AWS account owner that you shared the snapshots with can create a new EBS volume in their AWS account, enabling them to have all of data from your EBS volumes in their account. It is important to note that users can share only unencrypted snapshots since encryption keys differ per AWS account.
In this article, we will show you how to share snapshots (EBS volume data backup) with other AWS account owners by modifying snapshot attributes.
In the example below, we used a Windows 2012 instance with the following data:
Next, create a snapshot from the previously created volume: Using the AWS CLI aws ec2 create-snapshot –volume-id vol-5be6ff47 –description “This is my data volume snapshot.”
In order to share your snapshot with another AWS account, select ‘Modify Snapshot Permissions’ under the ‘Actions’ tab in your AWS console and enter the appropriate AWS account number. (Note: An AWS account ID is a 12-digit numeric code that you can find in your AWS account settings. Please refer to the following wizard for more details). Using the CLI [Modify Attribute]
You can see if the snapshot was successfully shared with the other AWS account by logging into the other account and filtering according to ‘Private Snapshots’ and ‘Snapshot ID’.
We have attached the new volume to an EC2 instance in the targeted account. In the following wizard, you can see that the data from the original AWS account is available in the target AWS account’s volume.
This article demonstrates how to copy data from one account to another account by sharing snapshots with a targeted account. It’s important to note that sharing snapshots is more secure, fast and cost-effective when compared to copying data using SCP or any other copy command from one account to another. It’s also important to note that when you share snapshots, all of the data on your EBS volume is shared with the other account. This may include secure data such as (kets, log files, etc.) so it’s important to remove secure content that you don’t want to share with the other user.
N2W offers a solution that enables you to further simplify the process of using snapshots. N2W is an enterprise-class backup-recovery and disaster recovery solution for the EC2 compute cloud. N2W is available as a service model that allows users to manage multiple AWS accounts and configure policies and schedules to take automated snapshot backups. It also has a Windows agent to consistently back up Windows applications. N2W allows you to recover a volume from a snapshot, increase its size and switch it with an existing attached volume, in a single step.
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