One of the problems with using a cloud solution is getting started. You have massive amounts of data that are not in the cloud. However, you want to provide access to that data anywhere. The AWS snowball service provides a practical solution without requiring weeks of uploading.
Snowball is an Appliance
The Snowball service Amazon provides is an appliance, not a software service. In this case, Amazon ships you a device for loading your data. Then you send that device to Amazon so that they can load the data onto their cloud. This may seem like a lot of overhead. However, when you are moving massive amounts of data (multiple TB or more), this is a cheaper and more reliable solution than the Internet.
Two Options
The service pricing lists two options. There is a fifty TB and an eighty TB option. Thus, you will quickly note how small amounts of data will not need this service. Your photo album is not going to need this. Use the Internet and wait a few hours (or days). In both cases, a device is shipped to the customer, loaded with the data, and then shipped back to Amazon. When the device is received, the data is transferred up to S3, and SNS notifications are used to keep the customer informed of progress.
No Excuse For Enterprises
The cloud can be a tough decision for established businesses. Think about all of the digital documentation lawyers, doctors, and high transaction businesses can accumulate over years and even decades. The amount of data can be a barrier to entry for fully utilizing a cloud service. A hybrid approach is always an option, but that means those legacy systems (and data centers) still have to stick around. This service is a solution to that problem. Now you can have your data fully on the cloud in a week or two without burying your data transfer speeds during that time. The prices of only a few hundred dollars make this affordable as well.
We have seen a lot of services and pricing tiers that allow you to ease into cloud services. Use snowball when you decide to dive in completely.
