- AWS Snowcone:
- Description: Snowcone is the smallest member of the AWS Snow Family, designed for use in harsh environments and constrained spaces.
- Weight: It weighs approximately 4.5 pounds (2.1 kg).
- Use Cases:
- Ideal for space-constrained environments.
- Suitable for scenarios where smaller size and portability are critical.
- Useful for one-way data migration from remote edge locations to AWS.
- Limitations:
- Offers less storage, memory, and computing power compared to Snowball.
- Not suitable for long-term data storage at the edge.
- Relies on AWS DataSync for online data transfer, which may struggle in poor network conditions.
- AWS Snowball:
- Description: Snowball comes in two versions: Storage Optimized and Compute Optimized.
- Storage Optimized:
- Purpose: Designed primarily for large-scale data transfer and storage.
- Characteristics:
- Larger than Snowcone.
- Versatile and suitable for migrating substantial amounts of data.
- Compute Optimized:
- Purpose: Combines storage and compute capabilities.
- Use Cases:
- Run Amazon EC2 instances and AWS Lambda code locally.
- Perform compute-heavy tasks at the edge.
- Limitations:
- Larger and less portable than Snowcone.
- Still relies on AWS DataSync for online data transfer.
- Comparison Summary:
- Snowcone:
- Smaller, lightweight, and easier to handle.
- Ideal for constrained environments.
- Suitable for minimal data transfer needs.
- Snowball:
- Larger, more versatile, and built for substantial data migration.
- Available in storage and compute-optimized versions.
- Supports more data storage and compute-intensive tasks.
In conclusion, choose Snowcone for extreme portability and minimal data transfer, and opt for Snowball when you need more storage capacity or compute capabilities.