# AWS Snowball

> A rugged box AWS shipped to you to move huge amounts of data by truck instead of internet.

- Level: Basic
- Topics: AWS, Cloud
- URL: https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/aws-snowball/
- In Spanish: [AWS Snowball](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/es/aws-snowball/)

**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.

## An analogy

Instead of emailing a whole library one page at a time, you load the books into a moving truck and drive it across town.

## 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.

## Go deeper

- [What is Snowball Edge? (official docs)](https://docs.aws.amazon.com/snowball/latest/developer-guide/whatisedge.html)
- [AWS Snowball product page](https://aws.amazon.com/snowball/)

## Related terms

- [Amazon S3](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-s3/): A giant online drawer for files, rented by the gigabyte.
- [Encryption](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/encryption/): Scrambling data so that only someone with the key can read it.
- [Internet](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/internet/): A worldwide network of networks that lets any connected device reach any other.
- [Bit and byte](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/bit-and-byte/): The smallest unit of digital information, and the group of eight that computers count in.
- [Amazon EC2](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/amazon-ec2/): Virtual computers you rent by the hour, in any size, and switch off when done.
- [AWS DataSync](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/aws-datasync/): An AWS service that copies large amounts of files over the network, and checks they arrived intact.
- [Command line](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/command-line/): Controlling a computer by typing text commands instead of clicking icons.
- [AWS Outposts](https://tidbit.legios.com.ar/aws-outposts/): AWS hardware installed in your own building, run by AWS as part of a Region.