AWS Knowledge
Understanding AWS Snowball Pricing and Costs
Piyush Kalra
Nov 7, 2024
Transferring a cloud a massive amount of data has always remained a challenge for organizations with large data workloads. However, Considering the level at which organizations generate data daily, moving data into the cloud in a cost-effective and more efficient way has never been more in demand. The cost of transferring such data can be crippling, but thanks to AWS Snowball, transferring and migrating large data sets has become easy. Transferring and migrating large data can be complex, so understanding the cost structure of such tools is imperative. And this is where AWS Snowball comes into play. In this blog, we will walk you through the pricing and cost of AWS Snowball.
What is AWS Snowball?
AWS Snowball can be considered a service that allows you to safely relocate your vast amounts of data into the AWS environment. Snowball is ideally suited for specific use cases owing to its unique benefits, such as its relatively low cost and its specific design that caters to secure large data transfers. According to Amazon, AWS Snowball can greatly outperform its competitors due to its reliable, heavy-duty devices for transferring vast amounts of data. Snowball can cater to the specific needs of clients that entrust a significant amount of data within the cloud.
AWS Snowball Devices and Their Purpose
AWS offers different types of Snowball devices to suit various purposes. The traditional Snowball device is an AWS Snowball tool that is used primarily for transferring data. On the other hand, the AWS Snowball Edge Compute Optimized and AWS Snowball Edge Storage Optimized bring cloud computing and storage to the fold. Such sophisticated devices, in addition to helping in the migration of data also provide the capacity to process the data on them so that applications are executed and data is processed on the edge.
Role of AWS Snowball in Data Transfer
As far as AWS Snowball is concerned, its principal role is to serve as an effective alternative to transfer data across networks securely and cost-effectively. AWS Snowball facilitates the transportation of large volumes of data sets by physically moving data in a ruggedized device without being constrained by internet bandwidth. High-capacity devices can transfer 50 terabytes each and fast data speed of 100 Gbps can be supported; Snowball makes sure that movement of the data starts from the data center to the Amazon infrastructure.
Key Features of AWS Snowball
Secure Data Transfer: Every bit of data is scrambled with a 256-bit level of data encryption, which is only undone once the data leaves the customer facility.
Onboard Processing: Snowball Edge has computing structures for supporting applications to run and process data before moving the data.
Easy Data Management: The management of devices and monitoring of data transfer is made easier through the AWS OpsHub interface.
Integration with AWS Services: Integrates easily with services such as Amazon S3 and Amazon EC2 following data transfer.
How Does AWS Snowball Work?
Every organization has its reasons for choosing the AWS Snowball device; in the case of Snowball, the reason is data migration, but to use the device, one must know how it works, that is a rudimentary stage. Involve a few pivotal stages in ensuring data migration does occur without targeting, losing, or changing any.
Step-by-Step Data Transfer with AWS Snowball
Ordering the Device: Start by ordering a Snowball device through the AWS Management Console, specifying the data type and size for transfer.
Loading Data: Once the device arrives, use the included Snowball client to securely copy your data onto the device. The data is encrypted before transfer using the AWS Key Management Service.
Shipping to AWS: After loading, ship the Snowball device to AWS using the provided shipping labels. AWS manages the entire shipping process, ensuring security throughout.
Data Import: Once AWS receives the device, your data is transferred into the designated Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) buckets or other AWS storage services as required.
Security Features
AWS Snowball devices have many built-in security features to protect data in transit. Such features are data encryption retention, anti-tamper design, and secure transportation protocols. Data are only decrypted when in the possession of AWS, which provides total data protection from unauthorized access.
Deep Dive into Snowball Pricing Structure
AWS Snowball pricing components need to be grasped for proper planning and management of resources in an enterprise.
Per Job and Per Day Fees
AWS Snowball has pricing based on per-job determinants with a stipulation of a fee on a daily basis for the use of the device. Per job service fee is inclusive of 15 free days of self-on-site presence, after which a charge per job is levied, which involves a total fixed setup fee supposed to be paid with every new commodification order made through snowball console or JMAPI (API from cmd line service(CLS)). Shipping of devices does not count in the free usage quota of 15-days. The stipulated fee only applies on all days where the device was physically under the client's command and not on days of transfer. AWS outlines pricing structures based on different regions around the world; in case the client decides to retain the devices for a longer period of time, after the 15-day free period additional daily charges apply.
For instance, if the device is invoked in the US East, the fee is about $250. The fee covers the job of setting the device and up to the first 15-days of device usage. If the device is used beyond the first 15-days, the applicable fee on that particular region will be charged on a daily usage basis.
Committed Upfront and Monthly Fees
AWS provides upfront sponsored pricing to businesses who desire to keep the use of a Snowball compliant. This provides a discount in terms of costs when paying on a monthly or an on-demand basis. The upfront payment also includes shipping charges; the added service that is not charged is the daily fee for the period that has been prepaid. Usually, at the end of this negotiated period, the lease can be extended for another year. However, this can be subject to a device cycling fee if the device one is leasing is turned in for another device.
This model is well suited to businesses expecting to go for projects for a time spanning years. This clause dictates automatic deduction of a constant service fee irrespective of whether the device is being used or not returned to AWS; some might consider this a wasted fee. For such coverage, the first month would provide a limited fee on a prorated basis.
This is backed up by AWS's 1-year usage charge in the Snowball NY region, which totals $97,268. There are no extra costs associated with the fee other than the cost of transferring data jobs. If one wishes to pay on a monthly basis, then there’s $9,885 due at the beginning of the month. Still, one can feel free to take the project out whenever without penalties, which isn't the case when I’m waiting to run the project in a few years, where devices are booked on a monthly or yearly basis.
Upfront Commitment Options:
In case extended usage of Snowball is intended, fees are paid upfront, which saves them about 62% of on-demand equivalent costs, which means:
Paying the upfront fee when you receive a Snowball device for a 1 or 3-year period.
No extra per-job or per-day fees during the commitment period.
Available only for Snowball with EC2 compute instances, not the data transfer-only version.
Data Transfer fees and Storage Fees
Uploading data onto Amazon S3 is free hence, no fees need to be incurred during the process. However, when transferring data, certain charges must be considered; this is usually according to the region. A good example would be US East (N Virginia) at $0.03 per GB.
While using Amazon Snowball, the data transfer cost when sending data to Amazon S3 is also free. However, there are fees charged to transfer data from Amazon S3, which is $0.03 per GB when the data was retrieved through the US East region in the case where S3 was accessed via Snowball.
The stated fee will still be charged with regard to requests of S3 pertaining to import/export as well as the data storage costs the very moment the data goes to Amazon S3. Having this knowledge is important as such information would be highly useful for project cost estimation.
Loss Fees
To prevent further issues, the data is first encrypted. When there is the conviction that the forceful return of Snowball will damage the device or make it permanently out of use, then the carrier loses the device. The loss fee becomes payable in all such cases. Such discipline is required for all who, at some point in time, had possession of the device.
Appliance Type Lost Device Fees:
Snowball Edge Compute Optimized: $20,000
Snowball Edge Storage Optimized 210TB NVMe: $80,000
Other AWS Fees
Those who transfer data must calculate shipping costs and other forms of AWS fees before transferring the data. It joints other expenses that have to be planned before going after the data transfer process.
Additional Pricing Benefits
Aside from basic pricing features, AWS Snowball has a number of financial advantages, making it more appealing than conventional data transfer methods.
Cost Savings
AWS Snowball makes it possible to save high-speed internet costs and avoid network strain due to the ease of off-site data transfer. Indeed, portable data transfer can help eliminate broadband expenses as well as limitations of bandwidth utilization control, which is quite helpful for remote and poorly connected areas. Shifting bulk data sets offline always enhances the network's effectiveness, and consequently, times or costs associated with the downtime or degraded services are cut down.
Volume Discounts and AWS Comparisons
AWS grants volumes of discounts for customers who are able to utilize Snowball for long terms. Organizations are allowed to commit for a period of either one or three years, pay for the service in advance, and stand to save up to 62% compared with on-demand rates. Furthermore, advances from bulk purchases of several Snowball units by large corporations that have huge amounts of data to be transferred to various sites also attract discounts.
Comparing Snowball with the other AWS services is of paramount importance as it proves to be cheaper for massive-scale jobs. Even though AWS Direct Connect creates a private network connection, it has per-use billing and monthly subscriptions that can quickly escalate to large amounts when transferring large datasets. On the other hand, the use of Snowball is comparatively cheaper as it only incurs a one-off job charge and has bulk discounts for large-size datasets. Also, the s3 transfer acceleration increases the speed of data uploads to Amazon S3 but attracts additional costs, which is not the case with Snowball, which is sold at a set price and does not allow for future payments.
Case Study: A Startup's Journey to Cost Optimization with AWS Snowball
To understand the value addition of AWS Snowball in depth, let us examine how Trellix dealt with the problem of data transfer with Snowball's help.
Challenges Faced
In the course of a fast-tracked data center relocation attempt, Trellix needed to transfer over 400 terabytes of a proprietary collection of threat molecules which encompassed more than 300 million files to Amazon web services. The undertaking was difficult due to legacy on-premise devices and a lack of bandwidth.
Implementation of AWS Snowball
After assessing several options, Trellix chose AWS snowball edge devices from AWS because they were simple and completed the transmission in several days. The programmatic manner and adherence to the schedule impressed them as they used five snowball devices to transfer all the information within two months.
Achieved Results
As a result, Trellix did not incur any expenses related to purchasing on-site software, hardware, or networking upgrades. The costs associated with the Trellix Advanced Research Center were also saved as the caretaking of the data center over-exit time successively improved cost values with operating profit, Delivering them the ability to scale and innovate going forward.
Tools and Tips for Cutting AWS Snowball Costs
Although AWS Snowball is already cost-effective by nature, there are also additional methods that can make it even more cost-friendly.
Monitoring and Managing Costs
The AWS Pricing Calculator is one of the many useful tools that allow for accurate estimations of how much you can expect to pay before the transfer is initiated, monitoring in order to manage the entire process. These are AWS tools that I would advise each and every customer to utilize.
Optimization Techniques
To save on cost, use these methods like:
Efficient Data Segmentation: Instead of treating the whole dataset as a single entity, processing and transferring smaller individual components is advisable.
Robust Data Management: Use the devices actively and avoid unnecessary extra day charges by keeping accurate inventory records of the devices in use.
Conclusion
Once you understand how the AWS snowball pricing works for their services, you will now be able to get the most out of investing in this innovative and creativity-driven data transfer service. Every factor is important to the budget, from the price per transfer section to the cost of active storage. Enable your organization to make the best decisions and benefit from cloud migrations at a low budget in no time.
To deepen your understanding of what AWS Snowball is capable of, you may consider signing up for a free trial or reaching out directly to AWS for a custom quote.
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