AWS Snow Family

AWS Snow Family

The AWS Snow Family consists of physical devices used to migrate large amounts of data into and out of AWS, or to run compute operations at the edge (in disconnected environments). It solves the problem of limited network bandwidth when moving petabytes of data.

Devices

1. AWS Snowcone:

   • Smallest device (4.5 lbs). Portable, rugged.
   • Capacity: 8 TB / 14 TB (SSD).
   • Use Case: Space-constrained environments, backpack data collection, IoT hub.
   • Can ship data online via AWS DataSync or offline by shipping the device.
2. AWS Snowball Edge:

   • Ruggedized shipping container size.
   • Storage Optimized: 80 TB or 210 TB (NVMe). Best for massive data transfer.
   • Compute Optimized: High compute (vCPUs/GPU) for edge processing (ML, Video analysis). 42 TB storage.
   • Clustering: Can cluster up to 15 nodes.
3. AWS Snowmobile (Legacy/Niche):

   • 45-foot shipping container truck.
   • Capacity: Up to 100 PB.
   • Use Case: Exabyte-scale datacenter migrations.

Key Features

• Offline Data Transfer: You load data, ship the device to AWS, and AWS uploads it to S3. Bypasses the internet.
• Edge Computing: Run EC2 instances and Lambda functions directly on the device (Snowball Edge and Snowcone) without internet connectivity.
• Security: 256-bit encryption (managed by KMS), tamper-evident enclosures, TPM (Trusted Platform Module). Data is wiped after upload.

Exam Tips

• When to use: When uploading data over the internet would take more than a week (or typically > 10 TB with slow connection).
• Snowball vs DataSync:

  • DataSync: Online transfer (requires network).
  • Snowball: Offline transfer (shipping physical device).
• Snowball Edge Compute: Keyword "Remote location", "No internet", "Pre-process data", "Machine Learning at edge".

Common Use Cases

• Cloud migration (shutting down datacenters).
• Content distribution.
• Tactical edge computing (Military, Mining, Ships).
• Disaster recovery.