Title

AWS re:Invent 2022 - AWS Snow Family: Bringing AWS to rugged, mobile & disconnected edge (HYB205)

Summary

Ramesh Kumar introduced the AWS Snow family, focusing on AWS Snowcone and AWS Snowball Edge, which are designed for edge computing workloads in rugged and disconnected environments.
AWS Snow family devices are secure, rugged, and support a subset of AWS services for compute, storage, IoT, data analytics, and machine learning.
Danny Wei explained how Snow devices enable edge compute use cases, including running compute instances, virtual machines, and containers in environments with limited connectivity.
Michael Roberts from Hypergiant shared how they use AWS Snowball Edge for the U.S. Army's Robotic Combat Vehicle program, highlighting Command Center, a platform for mission operations and decision support.
Ramesh Kumar concluded by discussing how customers can use multiple Snow devices for complex workloads and highly available deployments, including multi-node clusters and server rack configurations.

The AWS Snow family is designed to extend AWS cloud capabilities to edge locations where there are challenges such as low latency requirements, data sovereignty, and local data processing needs.
AWS Snowcone and AWS Snowball Edge are suitable for a variety of use cases, including data capture, ML inference, and data analytics, in environments with shock, vibration, and limited or intermittent network connectivity.
The Snow family supports a range of AWS services and APIs, allowing customers to run applications independently of AWS for extended periods, which is crucial for operations in disconnected, disrupted, intermittent, and limited (DDIL) environments.
Hypergiant's use of AWS Snowball Edge for the U.S. Army's Robotic Combat Vehicle program demonstrates the practical application of AWS Snow devices in defense and critical infrastructure, showcasing the potential for AI-driven decision support in challenging conditions.
The ability to deploy multiple Snow devices in clusters for complex and highly available workloads indicates the scalability and flexibility of the Snow family, catering to the needs of customers with demanding edge computing requirements.