Clumio - A Cloud-Native Backup Solution for AWS

Clumio positions itself as a modern backup solution for AWS workloads - because in the cloud-native age, even the cloud needs a safety net. Its core proposition? Back up your AWS data… directly into AWS

It’s a bit like backing up your files from partition C to partition D and calling it a security breakthrough. Sure, it’s technically separate - Clumio calls it a “logical air gap”… but if AWS sneezes hard enough, everything could still catch a cold.

To be fair, Clumio isn’t pretending to be something it’s not. It isn’t trying to build an entirely new ecosystem or challenge AWS on its own turf. Instead, it’s leaning in - using AWS-native services to back up AWS-native data. There’s a certain elegance in that. Clumio integrates natively with services like EC2 (via EBS volumes), S3, and DynamoDB, and does so without requiring agents or cumbersome installations. It offers centralized visibility across these services, which can be valuable for teams managing sprawling workloads.

One of Clumio’s smarter plays is its approach to DynamoDB backups. Rather than relying solely on brute-force full snapshots (which are expensive and slow), Clumio uses DynamoDB Streams to perform incremental backups. This results in major cost savings and operational efficiency - especially for high-throughput applications. It’s a solution designed with scale in mind, and that shows in some of their case studies.

Their encryption strategy is another nod toward flexibility. Customers can allow Clumio to manage encryption keys out of the box (for ease of use), or they can bring their keys. This “bring your own paranoia” model is appreciated in industries with stringent compliance requirements.

Object-level change tracking helps optimize what gets backed up when keeping overhead light and minimizing AWS API calls - especially important for services with tight limits or high volumes. For Kubernetes users, Clumio supports EKS, though with a notable caveat that only persistent volumes are backed up. Configs, CRDs, and other cluster states are skipped. So if your cluster implodes and you haven’t backed up your YAMLs elsewhere, you’re in for a long day.

Still, they have marquee customers that speak to its value. Duolingo, for example, reportedly uses Clumio to back up over 150 TB of DynamoDB data related to user learning progress. According to the case study, this move saves them about $1 million annually in storage and operational costs. That’s not just a line item on a finance report - it’s strategic, especially for a fast-scaling global application.

Yet for all that, usage stats tell an interesting story. The average Clumio user logs in once every 37 days. That’s less “active-backup management” and more “set it and hope for the best.” Clumio touts its API-first architecture, meaning it’s designed for automation and integration rather than day-to-day babysitting. In theory, that’s great. But if users aren’t regularly checking that backups are complete, restorable, and consistent, then the “backup” may just be a ticking time bomb. Saying “it’s all API-driven” is fine - unless your team never built the monitoring dashboard.

This passive engagement raises a philosophical question about backup hygiene in the age of SaaS. Is simplicity a strength, or does it lead to complacency? With Clumio, much of the complexity is abstracted away, but that comes with a tradeoff. For critical data, especially in regulated or high-availability environments, backup is not just about taking a snapshot - it’s about having confidence in the restore. The less time you spend in your backup tool, the more you’re betting that the worst-case scenario will never come knocking.

Clumio’s model is pragmatic. For AWS-native shops that don’t want to manage backup infrastructure or juggle third-party S3 lifecycle policies, it might just work. It fills a niche: simple, integrated, and automated protection for workloads already living in the AWS ecosystem. But calling it a hardened backup fortress might be a stretch - especially when the castle, the moat, and even the locks are all rented from the same landlord.

At the end of the day, Clumio is a cloud-native answer to a cloud-native problem. It’s not trying to solve everything - but for the workloads it supports, it brings efficiency, cost control, and simplicity. Whether that’s enough for your risk appetite depends on one question: how much trust do you place in a system that’s backed up and restored from the same place it lives?

The article is a result of my trip to Cloud Filed Day 23 in California in June 2025. You can watch video from this event here: