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AWS Launches Backpack-Sized Snow Edge Device
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has been steadily expanding its Snow lineup of portable edge computing and data-transfer devices over the past few years, since the inaugural Snowball appliance debuted in re:Invent 2015.
The latest addition to the family, AWS Snowcone, is the smallest. Weighing 4.5 pounds and standing at 9 inches tall, 6 inches wide and 3 inches deep, Snowcone is a ruggedized edge computing appliance that can fit inside a backpack, AWS claimed in its announcement earlier this month.
Snowcone, like the other devices in the Snow family, is designed to provide computing power to locations where Internet connectivity is hard to come by. Because of its small form factor, AWS envisions snowcone being used in "environments including desktops, data centers, messenger bags, vehicles, and in conjunction with drones."
For added portability, Snowcone can operate on battery power alone, besides via a power outlet.
Snowcone has built-in networking and Wi-Fi, data encryption features and a tamper-resistant body. It has 2 CPUs, 4GB of memory and 8TB of usable storage.
"You can use Snowcone for data migration, content distribution, tactical edge computing, healthcare IoT, industrial IoT, transportation, logistics, and autonomous vehicle use cases," wrote AWS evangelist Jeff Barr in a blog post. "You can ship data-laden devices to AWS for offline data transfer, or you can use AWS DataSync for online data transfer."
More information on Snowcone is available here.