Amazon to rent out 50TB box to bring data to its services
Amazon will rent out a box in the United States that will allow customers to send large amounts of data to the company for transfer to its online storage services. The ‘Snowball’ has a capacity of 50TB and is completely self-sufficient.
In 2009, Amazon started the AWS Import/Export program. Back then, users had to send their own storage media to the company, now Amazon is introducing the Snowball. The sturdy box is weatherproof, can withstand 6g shock and weighs almost 23kg. The company does not disclose what hardware the Snowball has on board, but the storage capacity is 50TB.
The device has a 10-gigabit network connection and an electronic ink-based screen. The screen acts as a control panel and also displays the shipping label. The box does not need to be packed or unpacked, the housing also functions as packaging.
Amazon presents the box as a solution for customers who want to store their data online in one go, migrate their online storage, or transfer the contents of parts of data centers. Users of the Amazon web services can request the Snowball and have it delivered to the location. The box can then be hung in the network to transfer the data. The AWS Snowball client ensures that the data is stored encrypted with 256-bit encryption. Once the data has been transferred, a shipping label will automatically appear on the E-ink screen and the box can be returned. Since the Snowball is reused, after transferring the data to the storage services, Amazon will delete all data according to the NIST’s media cleaning guidelines.
Currently, the Snowball can only be used to send data from a remote location to the various online services. The other way around is not yet possible, but Amazon says it wants to change that in the future. The company also wants to add continuous GPS tracking.
Amazon charges $200 for the use of the box, plus shipping. They depend on the location, distance and shipping method. The service is currently available in parts of the US. It is not known whether the service will also come to Europe.