What should a solutions architect do to meet these requirements?
Migrate all the data to Amazon S3. Set up IAM authentication for users to access files.
Set up an Amazon S3 File Gateway. Mount the S3 File Gateway on the existing EC2 instances.
Extend the file share environment to Amazon FSx for Windows File Server with a Multi-AZ configuration. Migrate all the data to FSx for Windows File Server.
Extend the file share environment to Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS) with a Multi-AZ configuration. Migrate all the data to Amazon EFS.
Explanations:
Migrating all data to Amazon S3 and using IAM authentication would change how users access files, as S3 is object storage and does not support traditional file system protocols like SMB/CIFS used by Windows file shares. This would not preserve the current access method.
Setting up an Amazon S3 File Gateway would allow access to S3 as a file system, but it still requires changes to the current access method. The File Gateway provides a bridge to S3, which may not fully meet the requirement for maintaining existing access patterns.
Extending the file share environment to Amazon FSx for Windows File Server with a Multi-AZ configuration allows users to continue using SMB/CIFS protocols, preserving existing access methods. FSx is designed for Windows workloads, providing high availability and durability while maintaining compatibility with existing applications.
While Amazon EFS can be configured for high availability, it is primarily designed for Linux workloads and uses the NFS protocol. This would not meet the requirement of preserving access methods for Windows file shares, which typically rely on SMB.
In my opinion, the answer is:
Extend the file share environment to Amazon FSx for Windows File Server with a Multi-AZ configuration. Migrate all the data to FSx for Windows File Server.