Amazon Web Services Inc. (AWS), has added export functionality for its appliance-based Snowball data transfer software.
Although it is called AWS Import/Export snowball, customers could not use it to import their data into AWS cloud. They can now export their data from the cloud to their premises.
AWS Snowball allows customers to ship hard-disk devices to them faster than it can over networks. Customers receive the encrypted appliances, which they then onboard and ship back to AWS to transfer to S3 cloud storage instances. The reverse process is also possible.
The appliances have “tamper-proof”, impact-resistant materials and built-in cabling. Digital shipping labels are also included to reduce the chance of shipping errors. This was reported here last October at the re-Invent conference.
In a blog post, Jeff Barr, AWS executive, explained that you simply log in to AWS Management Console and create an export request. Then, specify the data to export. A single request can be sent to one or more Amazon Simple Storage Service buckets (S3). The service will determine the number of appliances needed (each can hold up to 50 Terabytes) then create the export jobs. The appliances will then be prepared and data copied to them. They will then be shipped to the address provided in the request. The Console allows you to track each step.
AWS stated that Snowball is used in many scenarios, including disaster recovery, cloud migration projects, datacenter decommissionings, content distribution, and datacenter decommissioning. The latter is for customers who regularly share large amounts with other customers, clients, or business partners.
The company stated that Snowball is a solid data transfer option if you need to securely transfer large amounts of data to AWS. Snowball is also a good choice if you don’t want to invest in expensive upgrades to your network infrastructure or are located in an area without high-speed Internet access or are unable to afford it.
Snowball users pay $200 per job, extra-day costs, and 3 cents per gigabyte data export charges. Data import is free.
