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AWS Snowball Edge gets block storage service

Addition touted as making it easier to deploy applications in disconnected areas.
Written by Chris Duckett, Contributor

The Snowball Edge device from Amazon Web Services has gained the ability to handle block storage volumes. Available from today, AWS said the addition was made thanks to customers asking for it.

"With both block and object storage options on Snowball Edge, you have flexibility to deploy a wider set of applications in rugged, temporary or mobile environments that have limited or no network connectivity," AWS said in a blog post

To make use of block storage, customers use the EBS API to attach volumes to Amazon Machine Images.

"You do not have to pre-provision volumes, you can create them in the field as needed, and they will grow elastically to their defined size."

SEE: IT leader's guide to edge computing (Tech Pro Research)

In July, AWS unveiled the ability to run EC2 instances on Snowball Edge's 16 vCPUs, where data can be worked on remotely, before the unit is returned to AWS and migrated to its cloud. AWS then double the compute power of Snowball Edge in November, and allowed for an optional GPU.

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