Snow Family

💡 Definition

The AWS Snow Family provides physical devices to migrate data into and out of AWS without using the internet. It is designed for environments with limited or no connectivity, or when transferring data over the internet would take too long or cost too much.

🔑 Key Concepts

• Offline Transfer: Data is transferred to the device locally, and the device is shipped to AWS.
• Edge Computing: Some devices (Snowball Edge, Snowcone) have compute capabilities to run applications at the edge.
• Security: Devices are ruggedized, tamper-resistant, and use encryption.
• Members:
  • Snowcone: Smallest (8 TB), portable, rugged.
  • Snowball Edge: Petabyte-scale (80 TB), rack-mountable, supports EC2/Lambda.
  • Snowmobile: Exabyte-scale (100 PB), 45-foot shipping container truck.

⚙️ How it Works

1. Order: You order a device from the AWS console.
2. Receive: AWS ships the device to you.
3. Copy: You connect the device to your local network and copy data to it.
4. Ship: You ship the device back to AWS (shipping label provided).
5. Ingest: AWS copies the data into your S3 bucket.

🎯 Use Cases

• Large Data Migration: Moving TBs or PBs of data when internet bandwidth is insufficient.
• Edge Computing: Collecting and processing data in remote locations (ships, mines, factories) before sending it to AWS.
• Disaster Recovery: Quickly retrieving large amounts of data from AWS.

💰 Pricing Model

• Service Fee: Per job fee (includes device usage for a set period, e.g., 10 days).
• Data Transfer: Data transfer IN to AWS is free. Data transfer OUT is charged.
• Shipping: Standard carrier rates.

📝 Exam Tips (CLF-C02)

• Offline data transfer.
• Use when network is too slow or expensive.
• Snowcone: Small, portable (8TB).
• Snowball Edge: Large, rack-mountable (80TB).
• Snowmobile: Massive (100PB truck).

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See Also: * S3 * Storage Gateway * DataSync