AWS Snowball
A rugged box AWS shipped to you to move huge amounts of data by truck instead of internet.
AWS Snowball is a physical device for moving data. You order one, AWS ships you a rugged, suitcase-sized box full of storage, you plug it into your network and copy your files onto it, and then you send it back with a courier. At AWS, the data is loaded into Amazon S3. The current device is called Snowball Edge, and the data on it is always encrypted.
Why a box? Because with enough data, the internet is the slow option. Sending hundreds of terabytes over an ordinary office connection can take months; a courier takes days. Snowball Edge devices could also run small workloads on site, with EC2-style instances, in places with poor or no connection, like ships, mines or remote field stations.
Snowball Edge is no longer available to new customers. AWS now points new customers to AWS DataSync for online transfers, AWS Data Transfer Terminal for secure physical transfers, and AWS Outposts for computing at the edge. Existing customers can keep using it, and the idea it popularized, shipping disks when the network is too slow, is still a standard trick.
Keep in mind
- A physical device for moving large amounts of data into and out of AWS.
- Data is encrypted and loaded into Amazon S3 on arrival.
- Snowball Edge devices could also run computing jobs at remote sites.
- No longer offered to new customers; AWS suggests DataSync or Data Transfer Terminal.
