Chapter 88: Data Transfer Offline

AWS Data Transfer Offline (also called offline data migration, physical data transfer, or simply AWS Snow Family migration)

Most people only know about online data transfer — uploading over the internet using DataSync, DMS, S3 PUT, rsync, etc. That works beautifully when your data is small–medium (a few GB to a few TB).

But when your data reaches tens of terabytes, hundreds of terabytes, or even petabytes, trying to push it over the internet becomes:

• Extremely slow (months or years)
• Very expensive (egress + bandwidth bills)
• Unreliable (network interruptions, timeouts, retries)
• Insecure (long exposure over public internet)

That is exactly why AWS created offline data transfer — a physical shipping method where AWS sends you a rugged, encrypted storage device, you copy your data onto it at your own speed in your own data center, then ship it back to AWS, where they load it directly into your S3 bucket or other services.

1. The AWS Snow Family — The Three Main Devices (2026 Reality)

AWS offers three main physical devices under the Snow Family — each designed for different data sizes and situations.

2026 India reality (especially Hyderabad / Bengaluru / Mumbai data centers):

• Snowball Edge is by far the most used (~90 % of offline migrations)
• Snowcone is rare (mostly remote/field use)
• Snowmobile is very rare (only massive enterprises or government projects)

2. How the Offline Transfer Process Really Works (Step-by-Step)

Typical Snowball Edge flow (most common in 2026):

1. Order the device
   • AWS Console → Snow Family → Create job
   • Choose “Import into Amazon S3”
   • Select region (ap-south-2 Hyderabad recommended)
   • AWS ships the Snowball Edge device to your office/data center (2–7 days)
2. Receive & unlock the device
   • Device arrives in a rugged, tamper-evident case
   • Unlock using AWS-provided manifest file + unlock code (downloaded from console)
   • Connect via Ethernet (10/25/40/100 Gbps ports)
3. Copy your data
   • Use S3 Adapter (looks like an S3 bucket on your network)
   • Or NFS/S3 mounts — drag & drop files or use rsync, robocopy, etc.
   • Copy at your own speed — 10 Gbps = ~1 TB/hour (realistic ~500–800 GB/hour)
   • Device has built-in encryption (AES-256) — data is never unencrypted
4. Ship it back
   • Eject device safely
   • Put back in shipping box (pre-paid label)
   • Drop off at nearest courier (AWS partners with Blue Dart / FedEx in India)
   • AWS receives it in 3–10 days (depending on location)
5. AWS loads your data
   • Data lands directly in your S3 bucket (or other target)
   • You get notification + final report
   • Original files remain on device (you can request destruction or keep for audit)

Total time for 50 TB:

• Order & ship to you: 3–7 days
• Copy data: 2–5 days (at 10 Gbps)
• Ship back: 3–10 days
• AWS loading: 1–3 days → End-to-end: ~2–4 weeks (vs 6–12 months over internet)

3. Real Hyderabad Example — Typical Offline Migration

Your fintech startup “PayTelugu” (UPI wallet & payment app) — 2025 situation:

• On-premise data center in Madhapur
• 85 TB historical transaction logs + KYC documents (PDFs, images)
• Need to move to S3 in ap-south-2 for long-term cheap storage & analytics

Internet upload estimate:

• 100 Mbps upload = ~1 TB/day → ~85 days non-stop
• Cost of bandwidth + risk of interruption → not practical

What they did (very common 2026):

1. Ordered Snowball Edge Storage Optimized 80 TB (~₹80,000–1.2 lakh round-trip cost)
2. Received device in 4 days
3. Unlocked & mounted as NFS share
4. Copied 85 TB using rsync + parallel jobs (took 4.5 days at ~800 GB/hour)
5. Shipped back → AWS received in 5 days
6. Data landed in S3 bucket → lifecycle rule → Glacier Instant Retrieval after 90 days

Result:

• Total time: ~18 days
• Total cost: ~₹1.1 lakh (device + shipping)
• Internet upload would have taken ~3–4 months + higher bandwidth cost
• Data now cheap in S3 + Glacier → monthly storage ~₹8,000–12,000

4. Pricing Reality (ap-south-2 – 2026)

• Snowball Edge — rental + shipping + data loading
  • Typical round-trip cost: ₹50,000–1.5 lakh (depends on size & distance)
  • Data loading into S3 → free
  • Data out from S3 → normal egress rates
• Snowcone — cheaper (~₹15,000–40,000 round-trip)
• Snowmobile — custom quote (several lakhs to crores)

Key money-saving tip: Use Snowball only for the first big load. After that, use DataSync or S3 Transfer Acceleration for ongoing changes — much cheaper.

Summary Table — AWS Offline Data Transfer Cheat Sheet (2026 – India Focus)

Teacher’s final note (real talk – Hyderabad 2026):

Offline transfer with Snowball is the “truck instead of internet pipe” solution.

If your data is >10–20 TB and you want it in S3 quickly, securely, and cost-effectively, Snowball is almost always cheaper and faster than trying to push it over the internet.

Smart Hyderabad teams use it exactly once:

1. First big historical load (50–200 TB) → Snowball
2. Ongoing changes → DataSync or S3 Transfer Acceleration
3. Future growth → live replication (DMS, DataSync, etc.)

Got it? This is the “how to move massive data without waiting a year or paying a fortune” lesson.

Next?

• Step-by-step: How to order & use a Snowball Edge device in India?
• Deep dive: Snowball vs DataSync vs Direct Connect — when to use which?
• Or how to calculate exact cost & time for your data size?

Tell me — next whiteboard ready! 🚚📦