Category: AWS Snowball Edge

While the 2023 hurricane season kicks off June 1, the reality is that AWS is working to help organizations and communities respond to hurricanes long before a storm forms. Throughout the year, AWS Disaster Response develops and tests new innovations that utilize cloud technology to enable more efficient disaster response capabilities for our customers and relief organizations.

In a data-dependent world, success belongs to the side with decision advantage: the ability to acquire data and make sense of a complex and adaptive environment, and act smarter and faster than the competition. Understanding global environments requires more than just more data – it requires live two- and three-dimensional maps, new support tools, improved processes, seamless connectivity, and better collaboration that can scale to the needs of the environment. This blog post explores how to address challenges of big data and accelerate time to data insights with machine learning with AWS Snowball Edge device deployment at the edge.

Since 1971, Canada Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation (CCMEO) at Natural Resources Canada (NRCan) has accumulated an Earth observation (EO) data archive in excess of two petabytes (PB). NRCan wanted to modernize its geospatial offerings at a faster pace, so they turned to the AWS Snow Family on AWS to migrate their large volume of data.

In the immediate aftermath of a natural disaster, cell towers, power lines, and telephone and internet cable are often damaged or destroyed, limiting the ability for responders to share data and access the internet. The AWS Disaster Response team conducted a field testing operation designed to replicate a common disaster response scenario, to show how to establish an ad-hoc network at field sites with limited connectivity and create a link to an office headquarters to provide access to cloud-based resources and data to responders in the field.

AWS recently participated in a technical demonstration, known as “On-Ramp 4,” to test edge computing capabilities for the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS). ABMS is the Air Force’s contribution to the DoD’s Joint All Domain Command and Control (JADC2) vision. Under a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement (CRADA) with ABMS, AWS tested the ability to successfully integrate and deploy a tactical edge node solution leveraging highly resilient network connectivity and communications.

When Hurricane Dorian, a Category 5 storm, struck the Bahamas on September 1, 2019, first responders and aid organizations knew the damage would be significant. Dorian set the record for worst natural disaster to strike the Bahamas and became one of the two most powerful storms to make landfall from the Atlantic Ocean. Organizations standing ready to assist knew they needed innovative solutions to solve some of the more complex problems facing the island’s recovery.

The AWS Snowball Edge looks unassuming. Weighing in at under 50 pounds, it can be checked as a standard piece of airplane luggage, and yet, it is an extremely durable, portable piece of hardware. The AWS Snowball Edge is capable of petabyte-scale data transport with on-board storage and dense compute capabilities. It was engineered to perform in some of the world’s most extreme environments, including warzones at the tactical edge, in a secure and transportable fashion.