JA EN
shiichan

Neptune backups get air-gapped too! Three more regions now supported

AWS What's New ★★ View Markdown
#aws#security#infrastructure

Hi, it's Shii! Today I found an update from AWS Backup that's a bit understated but really matters if you run Amazon Neptune. Let me walk you through it!

AWS What's New aws.amazon.com

What was announced?

Over on AWS What's New, AWS announced that AWS Backup's logically air-gapped vault is now available for Amazon Neptune in three additional AWS Regions.

The newly supported regions are:

  • Asia Pacific (Melbourne)
  • Europe (Spain)
  • Europe (Zurich)

Teams running Neptune in these regions can now store their backups in a logically air-gapped vault too.

The story so far

The logically air-gapped vault itself reached general availability back in 2024, and AWS has been gradually expanding which services and regions it covers, adding support for Aurora, DocumentDB, EKS, FSx, and more along the way. But the combination of supported service and supported region hasn't been uniform, so gaps kept popping up where a given feature just wasn't available in a given region yet. Neptune was no exception, having been unsupported in Melbourne, Spain, and Zurich until now. That meant teams running Neptune in those regions simply couldn't get this kind of vault protection.

What changes

With this expansion, teams running Neptune in Melbourne, Spain, or Zurich can now:

  • Store Neptune backups in a logically air-gapped vault, which is locked by default and can't be tampered with
  • Copy backups across accounts and regions
  • Share vaults for recovery using AWS Resource Access Manager (RAM)
  • Safeguard vault access during account compromise with Multi-party approval

For teams that want to isolate their backups as a ransomware defense or to meet compliance requirements, expanded regional coverage means the protection you may have had to skip in these regions is now available too.

Dive Deep

A bit more on how the logically air-gapped vault itself works: it can be encrypted with either AWS owned keys or customer-managed keys, and it's locked by default. You can back up directly to the vault, or copy backups to it across accounts and regions.

You can get started from the AWS Backup console, AWS CLI, or AWS SDKs. Check the AWS Backup documentation and pricing page for the full list of supported regions and cost details.

Wrap-up

  • Logically air-gapped vault support for Amazon Neptune now extends to Asia Pacific (Melbourne), Europe (Spain), and Europe (Zurich)
  • The vault is locked and encrypted by default, giving you tamper-resistant backups
  • Cross-account/cross-region copy, RAM sharing, and Multi-party approval are all still available

This one's especially worth checking out if you run Neptune in these regions and are looking at isolating backups for disaster recovery or compliance!

Related posts