Thursday, May 21, 2009

Amazon Links Into SneakerNet

Amazon.com's web services arm, Amazon Web Services, made an unusual addition to its services Wednesday, telling its users that it will now allow them to input data its S3 storage service, using portable data storage. Amazon said it will allow users to mail physical storage--eSATA or USB disk drives--to the firm, allowing Amazon to import those quickly into its S3 service. According to Amazon, the move comes because sending them physical data is "often faster" and "more cost effective" than buying bandwidth. Users of the service have to send their data storage, weighing less than 50 pounds, to AWS along with connectors, power supplies, and data loading instructions.