AWS Backup locks cold storage for a minimum of 90 days

The workload

Running backups by hand across several AWS services, one script for a database snapshot, another for a file-system export, is the workload AWS Backup centralizes. Amazon's own developer guide, retrieved 16 September 2026, describes the service, as verified vendor text, as one that lets a user "centralize and automate data protection across AWS services" through "backup plans" applied to tagged resources, replacing custom, service-by-service scripts. This sits above the single-service point-in-time recovery this site's existing RDS entry documents: AWS Backup is the cross-service layer, not a substitute for one service's native backup feature.

What the documents show

The developer guide states, as verified fact, a specific list of supported resources: EC2 instances "backed by Amazon EBS volumes," S3, EBS, DynamoDB, RDS including all engines and Multi-AZ clusters, Aurora, EFS, several FSx types, Storage Gateway volumes, DocumentDB, Neptune, Redshift, Timestream for LiveAnalytics, VMware Cloud on AWS, CloudFormation stacks, SAP HANA on EC2, and EKS clusters. Two exclusions are explicit: it does not govern backups taken outside AWS Backup, and it does not support Timestream for InfluxDB. A manually-run EC2 instance without a backed-up EBS volume is not a documented case of coverage. The pricing page adds a separately verified rule: backups moved to cold storage "must be retained for a minimum of 90 days," available for EBS, EFS, DynamoDB, Timestream, SAP HANA on EC2, and VMware Backup.

The operating cost

The pricing page states charges apply to backup storage, data restored, restore testing, cross-Region transfer, and Audit Manager, billed per GB-month for storage and per GB for restores, varying by resource and region; worked examples show rates including $0.05 and $0.0575 per GB-month for warm storage, and per-GB restore charges of $0.02 and $0.04, verified figures from the page's own examples, though it does not consolidate them into one flat rate. A specific app's monthly total depends on which services it backs up and how much changes between incremental backups, a figure this entry does not calculate without a stated workload.

The stop condition

The pricing page's 90-day minimum names a hard floor: cold-storage backups cannot be deleted before that period without the early-deletion consequences it describes. To meet a retention period, the developer guide states a user configures lifecycle policies inside a backup plan that transition backups from warm to cold storage "according to a schedule that you define," a configuration choice, not a fixed default. Editorially, the stop condition is the point at which retained cold-storage cost, held for the 90-day minimum or longer, exceeds what a compliance or continuity requirement calls for.

• Is the specific AWS resource this app runs on the developer guide's stated list of supported services?
• Does the app's retention need exceed the 90-day cold-storage minimum, or would warm storage alone suffice?
• Are backup, restore, and cross-Region transfer charges being tracked separately, since the pricing page bills each as its own line?

AWS Backup's supported-service list and 90-day cold-storage minimum are both stated in AWS's own documents as retrieved on 16 September 2026; this entry assumes no per-service dollar total beyond the worked examples the pricing page itself provides.