AWS Snowball

Accelerate moving offline data or remote storage to the cloud

Easily migrate terabytes of data to the cloud without limits in storage capacity or compute power.

Accelerate application performance in disconnected, austere edge environments and run compute workloads with little or no connectivity.

Protect your data in transit with Snowball’s ruggedized chassis, integrated logistics, and tamper-evident box, and get data to the right place quickly.

How it works

In the AWS Snow Family console, select your preferred device, either Snowball Edge Compute Optimized or Snowball Edge Storage Optimized. Create a job with an Amazon S3 bucket, select Amazon Simple Notification Service (Amazon SNS) for tracking, and configure options like Amazon EC2 AMIs and a GPU. AWS prepares and ships the device to you. Once the device arrives, power it up and use AWS OpsHub to unlock it. Connect to your LAN. Use AWS OpsHub to manage the device, transfer data, or launch EC2 instances. When done, shut down and return the device to AWS. The shipping label automatically appears on the E Ink screen. When the device arrives at the AWS Region, any data stored in your on-board bucket(s) is moved to your S3 bucket and verified in about the same time it took you to load the device. All data is then securely erased from the device, and it is sanitized of any customer information.

  • AWS Snowball
  • How it works

    Migrate petabyte-scale data to AWS with Snowball. For jobs that require multiple devices, track the stage of your device with Snow's Large Data Migration Manager.

    Diagram that shows how to migrate data with AWS Snowball. Described at the link "Enlarge and read image description."

Use cases

Migrate data at petabyte-scale

Move databases,backups, archives, healthcare records, analytics datasets, IoT sensor data and media content to the cloud - especially when network conditions are limited.

Process and analyze data locally

Run Amazon Machine Images (AMIs) within Amazon EC2 and deploy AWS Lambda code on Snowball Edge devices with machine learning (ML) or other applications.

Optimize manufacturing data

Collect and analyze on-site factory data to refine processes and improve safety, efficiency, and productivity.

How to get started

Set up AWS Snowball access

Create an AWS account and an administrator user in AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM).

Explore AWS Snowball

Learn how to create and complete your first AWS Snowball Edge device job in the AWS Snow Family Management Console.

Discover best practices

Gain the maximum benefit from your AWS Snowball Edge device by reviewing and following best practices.


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