The Problem with Traditional Backup Formats
Traditional backup solutions (Veeam, Commvault, Rubrik, Cohesity) store your data in proprietary, compressed formats. When you need to recover, the backup software must:
- Decompress - Reverse the compression algorithms applied during backup
- Rehydrate - Reconstruct the original data structure from deduplicated blocks
- Convert - Transform from proprietary format back to native format
- Transfer - Move the reconstructed data to the target location
This process is CPU and memory intensive. It doesn't scale in large environments—recovering 100TB can take days, not hours. And when ransomware strikes, you don't have days.
Why Native AWS Formats Matter
Air Gap Recover takes a fundamentally different approach: we never change your data format. We use native AWS replication and snapshot mechanisms to copy your data exactly as it exists in production.
S3: Instantly Accessible
Your S3 data in the DR environment is just S3. Every object is immediately accessible via standard S3 APIs. No extraction, no conversion, no waiting. Point your application at the DR bucket and you're running.
- Same object keys - Identical structure to production
- Same metadata - Tags, ACLs, and custom metadata preserved
- Same access patterns - Use existing IAM policies and applications
- Concurrent access - No bottleneck on a restore process
EBS/RDS/Aurora: Minutes to Recovery
Snapshots in the DR environment are native AWS snapshots—the same format used by AWS Backup and RDS automated backups. Recovery is as fast as AWS allows:
- EBS volumes - Create volume from snapshot, attach to EC2 in minutes
- RDS databases - Restore to new instance in 8-15 minutes
- Aurora clusters - Clone from snapshot with near-instant data access
- EFS file systems - Mount replicated file system immediately
The Scalability Advantage
Traditional backup solutions have a fundamental scaling problem: recovery throughput is limited by the backup server's CPU and memory. Recovering 10TB might be acceptable. Recovering 500TB becomes a multi-day operation.
With Air Gap Recover, there is no bottleneck. S3 objects are accessed in parallel at AWS scale. Snapshots are restored using AWS's distributed infrastructure. Recovery of 500TB takes the same time as 50TB—AWS handles the heavy lifting.
Real-World Performance
- S3 (any size) - Immediate access, no restore process
- EC2 instance - 2-5 minutes from snapshot to running
- RDS database (1TB) - 8-12 minutes to operational
- Aurora cluster - Near-instant with clone, minutes for full restore
- EFS file system - Immediately mountable (already replicated)
No Proprietary Lock-In
Because we use native AWS formats, you're never locked into our platform. Your DR data is standard S3, standard EBS snapshots, standard RDS snapshots. If you decide to leave Air Gap Recover, your data stays in formats you can use directly—no export process required.
