How to backup Google Workspace data to Amazon S3.
Amazon AWS S3 cloud storage
Amazon S3 is a very affordable and flexible storage solution. It is probably the most-widely used cloud storage solution due to its high scalability, flexibility, reliability and security.
Compared to on-premise backup options, running CubeBackup on an Amazon EC2 instance and backing up Google Workspace data to an Amazon AWS S3 bucket is simply more stable and resilient, and offers better backup performance.
Google Workspace backup solutions
There are several solutions that can help you backup your Google Workspace data to Amazon S3:
- Cloud-to-cloud backup solutions, like Spanning
- Self-hosted backup solutions, like CubeBackup
Some Google Workspace cloud-to-cloud backup solutions act as a middle-man between Google's servers and the cloud storage provider (such as Amazon S3). All of your data is stored in the vendor's own storage with the cloud provider, so the vendor becomes the gatekeeper of your backup data, and all access to your data must be through them.
CubeBackup, on the other hand, leaves you in control of your data. Using Google APIs and Amazon APIs, CubeBackup allows you to back up your Google Workspace data to your own private Amazon S3 bucket directly, without acting as a middle-man. You retain control of the Amazon S3 bucket and all of your data without exposing it to any third parties. This allows you to view the physical files and folders of your backups, so you can copy or migrate the backup data to other storage locations if you wish.
Since CubeBackup leaves control of the Amazon S3 storage in your hands, you will need to create an AWS account on Amazon and apply for an S3 bucket. For more information, please visit https://aws.amazon.com/s3.
Comparison of CubeBackup and other Google Workspace cloud backup solutions:
| CubeBackup | Other cloud backup solutions | |
|---|---|---|
| Location of backups | Your private S3 bucket | Vendor's S3 bucket |
| Full control of your backups | Yes | No, only restore operations are allowed |
| Cost | Cheap | Expensive |
| Ease of setup | A little more work initially; must apply for S3 bucket | Very easy |
| Backup data migration | Yes (very easy) | It depends, some vendors offer data migration options, others do not. |
| User management | New users can be added to the backup list automatically | New users must be added manually |
Instructions
Create S3 bucket and IAM
Setting an Amazon S3 bucket as your backup location must be done just after the CubeBackup installation, during the initial configuration. For detailed information about how to apply for a private S3 bucket and corresponding Amazon IAM account, see detailed instructions in AWS S3 tab.
Once you have created your Amazon IAM account and S3 bucket, during the initial configuration of CubeBackup, you can select Amazon S3 as the backup location, then input the Bucket name, Access key ID, Secret access key values, select a Storage class and click the Next button. In the following steps, you can refer to the Initial Configuration instructions to complete all other settings.
If your backups are currently stored with CubeBackup using on-premises storage and you'd like to migrate to Amazon S3, please refer to Google Workspace Backup Migration.
Pricing comparison
You may be concerned about the cost of using Amazon S3 for your backup data. Pricing for Amazon S3 can be found at https://aws.amazon.com/s3/pricing/. Amazon's pricing model is somewhat complicated, but we have found that, on average, the cost is about $5/year for each user.
Pricing comparison between CubeBackup and other Google Workspace cloud backup solutions
| Organization Type | CubeBackup local backup | CubeBackup Amazon S3 backup | Other cloud backup solutions |
|---|---|---|---|
| Google Workspace Basic, Business, Enterprise | $5/user/year | $5 + $5(estimated) = $10/user/year | ~$40-50/user/year |
| Google Workspace for Education and Nonprofits | $2/user/year | $2+ $5(estimated) = $7/user/year | ~$40-50/user/year |
Note: The cost of Amazon S3 storage may vary depending on how much data each user has on Google Workspace. These estimated prices assume that each user has 30 GB data on average. By default, if you choose to backup Google Workspace data to Amazon S3, CubeBackup will employ Amazon S3 Standard-IA as the backup storage by default.