---
title: "Exoscale’s New Bucket Replication Feature: Secure, Automated S3 Data Sync"
description: "Exoscale’s New Bucket Replication Feature: Secure, Automated S3 Data Sync"
date: 2025-04-24
author: "Shayma Taii"
tags: ["storage","sos","S3"]
url: https://www.exoscale.com/blog/bucket-replication/
---
# Exoscale’s New Bucket Replication Feature: Secure, Automated S3 Data Sync

Exoscale's Simple Object Storage (SOS) has long provided robust, S3-compatible
object storage with features like versioning, server-side encryption (SSE-C),
and object locking. Now, we're excited to introduce **Bucket Replication**, a
powerful new feature designed to enhance data resilience, accessibility, and
compliance.


**Bucket Replication** enables automatic, asynchronous copying of objects from
one SOS bucket to another, either within the same zone or across different
zones. This feature ensures that data is consistently duplicated, providing an
additional layer of redundancy and facilitating various use cases.

## Key Use Cases


- **Disaster Recovery (DR) & High Availability**
    By replicating data to another bucket, you ensure business continuity.  If
    one zone experiences an outage, your secondary bucket remains accessible.

- **Faster Access**
    If your users are spread across different zones, replicating data closer to
    them reduces latency and improves access speeds.

- **Compliance & Data Residency Requirements**
    Certain industries mandate that data be stored in specific geographic
    locations. Bucket Replication helps meet these regulations effortlessly.

## How Bucket Replication Works

1. First, we create **Source** and **Destination** Buckets.  We set up two
buckets in different zones (e.g., Geneva and Zurich) based on your disaster
recovery or compliance needs. The **source bucket** acts as your primary data
store. 

2. Next, we enable **Object Versioning** by activating versioning on both
buckets to ensure proper tracking and replication of object changes.  

3. Then, we configure **Replication Rules** by defining rules using object
prefixes to control what gets replicated, allowing fine-grained, targeted
synchronization. 

4. We also need to set **IAM Permissions**, granting the necessary permissions
to authorize replication between buckets securely within your Exoscale
organization.

![Bucket Replication Diagram](https://www.exoscale.com/blog/bucket-replication/Bucket-Replication.png "How Bucket Replication Works")

## How Exoscale Bucket Replication Ensures Data Consistency


Exoscale Bucket Replication ensures data consistency through an **automated,
asynchronous process**, reliably propagating object changes (uploads,
overwrites, deletions) to the destination bucket.


Both source and target buckets within the same Exoscale organization must have
**versioning enabled**, and if **Object Locking** is used, it must be
configured identically.


The system is **version-aware**, replicating each object version, including
delete markers. **Priority settings** allow fine-tuning replication rules to
resolve conflicts, ensuring fast writes, resilience to latency, and consistent
replication for disaster recovery and compliance.

### Example Scenario: Cross-Zones Replication for Disaster Recovery


The following schema illustrates a seamless recovery strategy with minimal manual effort. It offers policy-based controls to meet business and compliance requirements, and significantly reduces downtime and data loss risks. It's important to take into consideration that Bucket replication operates within the same customer organization.

```
    +--------------------+        Replication         +---------------------+
    |  Source Bucket     |  ----------------------->  |  Destination Bucket |
    |  Zone A: Geneva    |                            |  Zone B: Zurich     |
    +--------------------+                            +---------------------+
           |                                               |
           | 1. Versioning Enabled                         | 1. Versioning Enabled
           | 2. Object Locking (if used)                   | 2. Object Locking (must match)
           |                                               |
           |--> Asynchronous, Eventual Consistency --------|

                          [Custom Rules & Priorities]
                - Prefix filters
                - Priority values (to resolve conflicts)
                - IAM permissions applied

                          [Use Case: Disaster Recovery]
```

- In the event of Zone A outage (Geneva), applications switch to reading/writing
from Zone B bucket (Zurich). If bidirectional replication is set up, the
destination can take over as the active zone and serve as the recovery point.
You can later reverse the replication direction if needed.


- In the event of a Human Error (accidental deletion, corruption), versioning and
object locking help roll back to earlier versions or preserve undeletable
states.

### Best Practices


We recommend using client-side encryption for sensitive data to maintain
customer-controlled security.  💡 Pre-encrypted objects (i.e., encrypted before
upload) will be treated as raw data by SOS and will be replicated as-is,
offering an alternative for customers needing both encryption and replication.

## Getting Started with Exoscale Bucket Replication 


Exoscale’s Bucket Replication boosts operational efficiency by automating data
redundancy and eliminating the need for manual backups.  Whether you’re
preparing for disaster recovery, enhancing global access, or ensuring
compliance, this feature offers a reliable solution to keep your data secure
and available. With easy setup via the Exoscale Portal, CLI, or S3 API, you can
quickly configure replication to suit your needs. 


📖 Learn more: [Exoscale Bucket Replication
Documentation](https://community.exoscale.com/product/storage/object-storage/how-to/replication/)