AWS Snowcone • Hacker News Board

Re: AWS Snowcone

#51

Post by closeparen » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:53 PM UTC

txcwpalpha wrote: post #28

aketchum wrote: post #13

I must not interact with big enough data to understand, but what is the point of this? I have watched/read several of the Snow product descriptions from AWS and I am still not quite sure I understand the point. It seems like a way to sync local big data to AWS cloud storage for data that is too large to realistically transfer via the internet. So is this simply a sneakernet external harddrive because physically shipp…

I'm with you. I think this is really cool but I have a hard time finding a use case for it. The use case for the other Snow products (Snowball, Snowmobile) are clearer, as they are for transferring petabytes of data to/from AWS without having to use slow internet connections. Snowcone could be used for this indeed, but at only 8 TB, the value proposition seems a lot less. Personally, I'd probably just suffer through…

A residential cable connection realistically offers something like 25Mbps down/3Mbps up. That's 246 days to upload 8TB!

Re: AWS Snowcone

#52

Post by thenoblesunfish » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:54 PM UTC

Didn't I see this on "Silicon Valley"?

Re: AWS Snowcone

#53

Post by orthecreedence » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

I see this and think "oh look, a surveillance company made another spy device they want me to buy and put in my home."

Re: AWS Snowcone

#54

Post by est31 » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:56 PM UTC

So you need to have Windows or Mac OS in order to use this? No love for Linux?

https://aws.amazon.com/en/snowcone/resources/

Re: AWS Snowcone

#55

Post by thoraway1010 » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:57 PM UTC

aketchum wrote: post #13

I must not interact with big enough data to understand, but what is the point of this? I have watched/read several of the Snow product descriptions from AWS and I am still not quite sure I understand the point. It seems like a way to sync local big data to AWS cloud storage for data that is too large to realistically transfer via the internet. So is this simply a sneakernet external harddrive because physically shipp…

Lots of potential uses:

Imagine Amazon was bidding on a big Department of Defense contract ($ in billion). DoD let's say wants to send drones / UAV's whatever to do big sensor passes out in far off areas / imagery, wideband radio etc). There is NO fast internet for the TB's generated. You pop this out of the drone, put it on the next resupply mail flight out, and ingest into Amazon cloud on far side for analytics.

Let's stay a store wants to collect 30 days of customer video related to all traffic in their 100 stores to do some sort of AI analysis on how folks use the stores. Again, some poorly paid store staff person can unplug this after a week and ship it off.

Let's say I generate data but instead of wanting to do a snowmobile every year, I want to do more granular moves. Again, I could do a weekly or whatever ship, and again from maybe a few locations.

I think especially in places with lower high speed internet penetration (africa, china etc) there is room for something "snackable" like this.

Let's say I distribute movies to movie theatres. Again, do a weekly ship in/out.

It's $60/job. Not bad. No data IN fees.

Re: AWS Snowcone

#56

Post by ryanmarsh » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:58 PM UTC

wiredfool wrote: post #5

Tactical edge computing?

Computers and software are essential to ISR, mission planning, and personnel.

Starlink will help with this, but sat data connections (IME) are perpetually saturated.

Re: AWS Snowcone

#57

Post by txcwpalpha » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:58 PM UTC

closeparen wrote: post #51

txcwpalpha wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm with you. I think this is really cool but I have a hard time finding a use case for it. The use case for the other Snow products (Snowball, Snowmobile) are clearer, as they are for transferring petabytes of data to/from AWS without having to use slow internet connections. Snowcone could be used for this indeed, but at only 8 TB, the value proposition seems a lot less. Personally, I'd probably just suffer through…

A residential cable connection realistically offers something like 25Mbps down/3Mbps up. That's 246 days to upload 8TB!

According to Speedtest.net [0], the average US internet speed is 138Mbps down/51Mbps up. That's certainly not amazing, but on average that's only ~2 weeks to upload 8 TB.

I can certainly see where this makes more sense if you're below that average, though.

0: https://www.speedtest.net/global-index/united-states#fixed

Re: AWS Snowcone

#58

Post by closeparen » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 5:59 PM UTC

txcwpalpha wrote: post #57

closeparen wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A residential cable connection realistically offers something like 25Mbps down/3Mbps up. That's 246 days to upload 8TB!

According to Speedtest.net [0], the average US internet speed is 138Mbps down/51Mbps up. That's certainly not amazing, but on average that's only ~2 weeks to upload 8 TB. I can certainly see where this makes more sense if you're below that average, though. 0: https://www.speedtest.net/global-index/united-states#fixed

Wow! That's very surprising. It's been a while since I lived without fibre; maybe DOCSIS got a lot smarter in the last few years?

Re: AWS Snowcone

#59

Post by [deleted] » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 6:00 PM UTC

[deleted]

Re: AWS Snowcone

#60

Post by N_A_T_E » Wed, Jun 17, 2020, 6:00 PM UTC

All of this makes sense to me, except I have no idea how they fit 100tb of capacity in a box that small. Aren't HDDs maxing out around 16TB these days? They couldn't fit 6 drives in there.