AWS has recently introduced AWS Data Transfer Terminal, a new option for high-speed data uploads. Currently available only in the US, Data Transfer Terminals provide a physical location where customers can bring their storage devices for fast data transfer to and from the AWS cloud.
According to the documentation, each facility has at least two 100G optical fiber cables connected to the AWS network, significantly reducing upload times and accelerating the migration of data-driven projects and applications. Channy Yun, principal developer advocate at AWS, explains:
The first Data Transfer Terminals are located in Los Angeles and New York, with plans to add more locations globally. You can reserve a time slot to visit your nearest location and upload data rapidly and securely to any AWS public endpoints, such as Amazon S3, Amazon EFS, or others, using a high throughput connection.
Source: AWS blog
Customers can use the console to reserve a private, exclusive, time-limited physical space at an AWS colocation facility, owned and managed by one or more service providers. Yun adds:
On your reserved date and time, visit the location and confirm access with the building reception. You’re escorted by building staff to the floor and your reserved room of the Data Transfer Terminal location. Don’t be surprised if there are no AWS signs in the building or room. This is for security reasons to keep your work location as secret as possible.
AWS now provides three distinct data transfer options: Data Transfer Terminals for high-speed migration at physical sites, Direct Connect for dedicated low-latency links, and Snowball for portable devices to transfer data in areas with limited connectivity. While the new Data Transfer Terminal adds another option, Snowballs have been recently affected by different retirements.
Last year, AWS retired the Snowmobile, the truck-based data transfer service introduced at re:Invent 2016, which enabled the transfer of up to 100 PB of data at a time. Instead of bringing a truck to customer data centers, companies must now travel to AWS data centers to use the new terminal. In a popular Hacker News thread, some users recalled Tanenbaum’s famous quote: “Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway.” Others questioned the limited availability of terminal locations and the industries most likely to benefit from this new option:
Judging by the locations I wonder if this is to cater to folks from production houses who want to upload large video files for processing or backup.
AWS also highlights additional use cases for the new physical locations, such as rapid automotive data processing, transferring data collected in remote areas, and migrating legacy data to the cloud. However, Corey Quinn, chief cloud economist at The Duckbill Group, is doubtful:
Your data shouldn’t live in your data center, it should live in an AWS data center, but you have lots of data. So you can now drive your data to an AWS data center but not the AWS data center it should live in, where AWS will copy your data and then send it to the right AWS data center. Do I have that right?
Customers are not charged for data transfer itself but for using ports during reserved time slots. Port usage fees vary depending on the data center location and the upload destination, starting at 300 USD per hour.
Data Transfer Terminal is currently available only to customers with enterprise support.
