AWS Services: AWS Snowball

AWS Snowball

1. Service Overview

AWS Snowball is a physical data transfer service used to move large amounts of data (terabytes to petabytes) into and out of AWS securely, when internet transfer is slow, expensive, or impractical.

1. Key Features

Physical, rugged storage device provided by AWS

Secure data transfer with end-to-end encryption

Offline data migration (no internet needed for transfer)

Supports import and export of data

Tamper-resistant and tracked devices

Integrates with Amazon S3 and other AWS services

1. AWS Category / Cloud Domain

Migration & Transfer

Hybrid Cloud

Data Migration Services

1. Where It Fits in Cloud / DevOps Lifecycle

Migration Phase:
Used during initial data migration from on-premises data centers to AWS

Disaster Recovery:
Useful for large-scale backup or recovery scenarios

Hybrid Cloud Setup:
Helps move data between on-premise infrastructure and AWS

Pre-DevOps Stage:
Prepares data before CI/CD pipelines and cloud-native operations begin

1. Programming Language / Access Methods

AWS Management Console

AWS CLI

AWS SDKs (Java, Python, C++, JavaScript, etc.)

Snowball client software (runs on local systems)

1. Pricing Model

Pay-per-job pricing

Cost includes:

Snowball device usage

Data transfer into AWS (often free)

Shipping and handling

No long-term commitment

Pricing varies by region and device type