AWS Snow Family Service
→ AWS Snow family is required for two purposes:
a. Data Migration — transfer heavy data through the physical drive.
b. Edge Computing — Collect and process data in edge cases where the internet does not support
1. Data Migration:
→ This simply means the transfer of data.
→ The AWS teams send a physical storage device from posts. You need to upload the data to the storage. Then AWS team will upload from the drive to your S3 bucket from a different faster process.
→ There are three devices — Snowcone, Snowball Edge and Snowmobile.
→ If the data is very large and requires data migration more than a week, using the AWS Snow family service is the best option.
Let us analyse three types of devices:
a. AWS Snowball Edge:
It is a physical device sent by AWS for sending large data.
Space: 80 GB or 40 GB (Two variants)
b. AWS Snowcone:
→ This device is light and can be carried anywhere in harsh environments.
→ This has lesser storage capacity than Snowball Edge Space: 8 TB
c. AWS Snowmobile:
→ AWS teams literally send a truck to carry data with video survellance
→ It can carry > 100 PB (i.e. 100000 TB).
Summary of Data:
Usage of Snow Family:
2. Edge Computing:
→ There are places where we have data, but not internet facilities or cellular networks such as mining stations underground, ships seas, or travelling trucks.
→ For these AWS teams provide Snowball Edge or Snowcone device facilities.
→ We can also borrow these devices for long-term 1 or 3 years at a discounted price.
3. AWS OpsHub
→ For handling the AWS snow family device. Earlier users need to use the terminal/command line for all work which was difficult.
→ So AWS has provided graphical interface software, need to download and is very user friendly.
Hands-on Snow Family:
→ Go to the AWS console → Search Snow family
→ Click Order a Snow family device:
→ On this webpage, we can either book device for :
a. Data migration — import and export options (first two)
b. Edge Computing — local option (eg underground mining station)
→ Follow the below screens:
→ Choose the device options:
→ Chose the bucket in which you want AWS to import data after you send the data to the device.
→ Write your email address for delivery notifications
→ The next page is to download AWS OpsHub — software for the graphical view rather than the command line. This is available for all OS environments.
→ The last step is to review your details and click Create job.
NOTE: Click Create job button only for use and not for demo purposes as you will be charged heavily.
Hybrid Cloud:
→ Sometimes a company does not require complete data to be on the cloud.
→ Part of it in premises and part in S3 cloud.
→ Hybrid Cloud is the best option at that time.
Amazon Storage Gateway:
→ This bridges between on-premises data and cloud data in S3.
Video:
Closing Thoughts:
For transferring very large data which requires more than a week of data migration AWS Snow Family service is time and money saving.
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