The backup alert hits your inbox again. Another overnight job failed, logs scattered across buckets, permissions drifted, and now your audit trail looks like a Jackson Pollock painting. You could babysit scripts all day, or you could fix the root cause: connecting AWS Backup with Cloud Run the right way.
AWS Backup handles data durability across AWS services, while Cloud Run runs stateless containers in Google Cloud. Pairing them seems odd at first, like mixing adapters between power outlets, but it’s exactly what multi-cloud teams need. You can centralize backup policies in AWS, then trigger or verify workloads through Cloud Run functions that validate objects, encrypt reports, or notify downstream systems.
When configured correctly, AWS acts as your data authority, Cloud Run performs the smart work at the edge, and both follow the same identity and policy principles. The key is mapping IAM roles with Cloud Run service accounts using OpenID Connect. That’s how you get traceable, short-lived credentials without hardcoding secrets. The pipeline then calls AWS Backup APIs using temporary tokens, stores metadata, and exits cleanly. No lingering keys, no mysterious cross-cloud zombies.
A quick mental model: AWS keeps your history safe, Cloud Run keeps your automation quick. Everything else is glue logic and permissions.
Common issues and their easy fixes
If Cloud Run can’t assume your AWS role, check the audience field in your OIDC token. AWS expects it to match the role’s trust policy exactly. Another favorite pitfall is expired session tokens cached by CI systems. Rotate them often, and let a lightweight proxy handle refresh cycles automatically.