What Is Amazon Snowcone? - Amazon Snowcone User Guide
Use CasesPricing
Services or capabilities described in Amazon Web Services documentation might vary by Region. To see the differences applicable to the China Regions, see Getting Started with Amazon Web Services in China (PDF).

What Is Amazon Snowcone?

Amazon Snowcone is a portable, rugged, and secure device for edge computing and data transfer. You can use a Snowcone device to collect, process, and move data to the Amazon Web Services Cloud, either offline by shipping the device to Amazon, or online by using Amazon DataSync.

It can be challenging to run applications in austere (non–data center) edge environments, or where there is a lack of consistent network connectivity. These locations often lack the space, power, and cooling needed for data center IT equipment.

Snowcone is available in two flavors:

  • Snowcone – Snowcone has two vCPUs, 4 GB of memory, and 8 TB of hard disk drive (HDD) based storage.

  • Snowcone SSD – Snowcone SSD has two vCPUs, 4 GB of memory, and 14 TB of solid state drive (SSD) based storage.

With two CPUs and terabytes of storage, a Snowcone device can run edge computing workloads that use Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (Amazon EC2) instances and store data securely.

Snowcone devices are small (8.94” x 5.85” x 3.25” / 227 mm x 148.6 mm x 82.65 mm), so they can be placed next to machinery in a factory to collect, format, and transport data back to Amazon for storage and analysis. A Snowcone device weighs about 4.5 lbs. (2 kg), so you can carry one in a backpack, use it with battery-based operation, and use the Wi-Fi interface to gather sensor data.

Note

Wi-Fi is available only in Amazon Web Services Regions in North America.

Snowcone devices offer an interface with Network File System (NFS) support. Snowcone devices support data transfer from on-premises Windows, Linux, and macOS servers and file-based applications through the NFS interface.

Like Amazon Snowball, Amazon Snowcone has multiple layers of security encryption capabilities. You can use either of these services to collect, process, and transfer data to Amazon, and run edge computing workloads that use Amazon EC2-compatible instances. Snowcone is designed for data migration needs up to dozens of terabytes. It can be used in space-constrained environments where Snowball Edge devices don't fit.

Use Cases

You can use Amazon Snowcone devices for the following use cases:

  • For edge computing applications, to collect data, process the data to gain immediate insight, and then transfer the data online to Amazon.

  • To transfer data that is continuously generated by sensors or machines online to Amazon in a factory or at other edge locations.

  • To distribute media, scientific, or other content from Amazon storage services to your partners and customers.

  • To aggregate content by transferring media, scientific, or other content from your edge locations to Amazon.

  • For one-time data migration scenarios where your data is ready to be transferred, Snowcone offers a quick and low-cost way to transfer up to 8 TB or 14 TB of data to the Amazon Web Services Cloud by shipping the device back to Amazon.

For mobile deployments, a Snowcone device can run on specified battery power. For a light workload at 25 percent CPU usage, the device can run on a battery for up to approximately 6 hours. You can use the Wi-Fi interface on your Snowcone device to collect data from wireless sensors. An Amazon Snowcone device is low power, portable, lightweight, and vibration resistant, so you can use it in a wide variety of remote and austere locations.

Note

Wi-Fi is available only in Amazon Web Services Regions in North America.

Pricing

You can order a Snowcone device for pay per use and keep the device for up to four years. For information about Amazon Snowcone pricing and fees, see Amazon Snowcone pricing.