Amazon has introduced block storage for its Snowball Edge data collecting and processing device, adding to existing file and object storage capabilities.
According to Amazon, customers want to process locally created or ingested data in real-time for in-field analysis and automated decision making, using the same resources and methods as in in the cloud. Hence the addition of block storage volumes used by Amazon EC2 instances running in the Snowball Edge appliance.
Snowball users fill up the ruggedised system with data for local processing, and then transport it to an Amazon data centre for AWS cloud upload.
The appliance can use Performance-Optimized NVMe SSD volumes, while capacity and throughput-oriented workloads store data on Capacity Optimized Hard Disk Drive (HDD) volumes. Applications with capacity and long-term storage needs can use the Amazon S3 object storage API.
To provide block storage to EC2 Amazon Machine Image-based applications on the Edge box, customers dynamically create and attach block storage volumes to the AMIs. Such volumes do not have to be pre-provisioned and they grow elastically to their defined size.
Find out more from an Amazon blog by Wayne Duso, AWS general manager for Hybrid and Edge.