Amazon Web Services has announced a new Snowball data transfer appliance, the AWS Snowball Edge, that can transport two times more data than the original AWS Snowball (up to 100 TB), and includes AWS Greengrass, making it a purpose-built hybrid edge device that can transfer data to and from Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), cluster with other Snowball Edge devices to form an on-premises storage pool, and run AWS Lambda to process and analyze data
AWS Snowball is a petabyte-scale data transfer service that uses secure appliances to allow customers to transfer large amounts of data to and from AWS at as little as one-fifth of the cost of using high-speed internet connections.
Since AWS introduced the AWS Snowball data transfer service in October 2015, customers have sent AWS Snowball devices a distance equal to circling the world more than 100 times.
The new Snowball Edge appliance can hold twice as much data as the original Snowball – up to 100 TB – and has four times the network speed, built in WiFi and cellular wireless communication, and a Network File System (NFS) interface with an Amazon S3-compatible endpoint that allows the Snowball Edge to connect to the cloud and pass data back and forth with Amazon S3.
Customers can also cluster multiple AWS Snowball Edge devices to create a storage pool and easily mount the Snowball Edge devices into existing data center rack environments.
The new AWS Snowball Edge also comes with AWS Greengrassembedded, and computing power equivalent to an Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) m4.4 xlarge instance for local processing tasks. This means customers can execute AWS Lambda functions and process data locally on the AWS Snowball Edge, making it possible to collect and analyze sensor data streams, transcode multimedia content, compress images in-real time, or run a local Amazon S3-compatible file server.
Ordering an AWS Snowball Edge is as easy as a few clicks in the AWS Management Console where customers can configure Amazon S3 buckets and AWS Lambda functions. When the AWS Snowball Edge arrives, customers simply connect it to their network, set the IP address, and use the included Snowball Validation tool to unlock the AWS Snowball Edge for use. A
WS Snowball Edge includes the same embedded cryptography and security as the original AWS Snowball, and all data stored is automatically encrypted using 256 bit encryption keys, which customers own and manage in the AWS Key Management Service (AWS KMS). With AWS Snowball Edge, encryption is now performed on the device, instead of on the client, producing higher performance and data throughput rates.
“We were blown away by customer response to AWS Snowball when we launched last year – we ran out of Snowballs in less than a week. When we talked to customers about what they liked most and what they would like to see next, they told us they would like to be able to transfer more data, cluster multiple Snowballs, and perform some data processing on the device,” said Bill Vass, Vice President, Storage Services at AWS.
“We are excited to introduce AWS Snowball Edge, a true hybrid edge device. Not only does it allow customers to transport 100 TB of data in less than a week, but Snowball Edge also gives them the flexibility to transfer data back and forth between the Snowball Edge’s location and Amazon S3, to cluster Snowballs into an on-premises storage pool, and to process data on-premises before shipping the Snowball Edge back to AWS.”
AWS Snowball Edge is available immediately to customers in the United States, and will be available to customers outside of the United States in the coming months.