AWS Announces Two New Hybrid Services to Help Customers Extend the AWS Cloud to Connected Devices AWS Greengrass lets customers run AWS Lambda functions and AWS IoT functionality locally on virtually any connected device; preview starts today
AWS Snowball Edge appliance stores 100 TB of data and includes on-board compute and storage
SEATTLE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Nov. 30, 2016-- Today at AWS re:Invent, Amazon Web Services, Inc. (AWS), an Amazon.com company (NASDAQ:AMZN), announced AWS Greengrass, software which allows customers to run AWS compute, messaging, data caching, and sync capabilities on connected devices. With AWS Greengrass, devices can run AWS Lambda functions to perform tasks locally, keep device data in sync, and communicate with other devices while leveraging the full processing, analytics, and storage power of the AWS Cloud. AWS also announced a new Snowball data transfer appliance, the AWS Snowball Edge, that can transport two times more data than the original AWS Snowball (up to 100 TB), and includes AWS Greengrass, making it a purpose-built hybrid edge device that can transfer data to and from Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), cluster with other Snowball Edge devices to form an on-premises storage pool, and run AWS Lambda to process and analyze data. To get started with AWS Greengrass, visit https://aws.amazon.com/greengrass/, and to get started with AWS Snowball Edge, visit https://aws.amazon.com/snowball-edge/.
AWS Greengrass brings local compute, messaging, data caching, and sync to connected devices
With the proliferation of IoT devices, enterprises are increasingly managing on-premises infrastructure that is not located in a data center, such as connected devices in factories, oil wells, agricultural fields, hospitals, cars, and various other venues. Because these devices are powered by microprocessors that have limited processing power and memory, they often rely heavily on AWS and the cloud for processing, analytics, and storage. However, there are circumstances when relying exclusively on the cloud isn't optimal due to latency requirements or intermittent connectivity that make a round trip to the cloud unfeasible. In these situations, IoT devices must be able to perform some tasks locally. Programming and updating software functionality on IoT devices is challenging and complex. Relatively few developers have the expertise to update these embedded systems, and even fewer can do so without creating unwanted downtime.
AWS Greengrass is software for running AWS Lambda functions and AWS IoT functionality locally on virtually any connected device. AWS Greengrass eliminates the complexity involved in programming and updating IoT devices by allowing customers to use AWS Lambda to run code locally on virtually any connected device in the same way they do on the AWS Cloud. With AWS Greengrass, developers can add AWS Lambda functions to a connected device right from the AWS Management Console, and the device executes the code locally so that devices can respond to events and take actions in near real-time. AWS Greengrass also includes AWS IoT messaging and synching capabilities so devices can send messages to other devices without connecting back to the cloud. AWS Greengrass allows customers the flexibility to have devices rely on the cloud when it makes sense, perform tasks on their own when it makes sense, and talk to each other when it makes sense - all in a single, seamless environment.
For our customers who are pioneering large-scale IoT deployments, connected devices represent a growing percentage of their infrastructure, and as they move quickly to migrate their servers to the cloud, these IoT devices will become the primary on-premises infrastructure customers are managing - this is the next generation of hybrid IT, said Marco Argenti, Vice President, Mobile and IoT at AWS. Customers want their IoT devices to be able to perform computing tasks and process data locally, functioning as a seamless extension of their AWS environment. AWS Greengrass makes this possible by putting a mini AWS,' a select set of AWS capabilities, inside connected devices. With AWS Lambda and AWS IoT messaging and security, customers can run IoT applications seamlessly across local IoT devices and the AWS Cloud using the same programming model.
AWS Greengrass works on almost any device with a general-purpose CPU that runs Ubuntu or Amazon Linux, and supports ARM and x86 architectures. Programming AWS Greengrass devices is as easy as creating AWS Lambda functions; developers can use the same programming language and model that they use in their existing AWS environments and deploy the AWS Lambda functions to their connected devices. This also means that developers can create and test their device software in the cloud, and then seamlessly deploy it to all of their devices. With AWS IoT's messaging functionality, devices can send messages to one another on a local network when there is no available connection to AWS. AWS Greengrass authenticates and encrypts device data at all points of connection using AWS IoT's security and access management capabilities so that data is never exchanged between devices or the cloud without proven identity.
A growing ecosystem of semiconductor manufacturers, including Intel, Qualcomm, and Annapurna Labs are integrating AWS Greengrass into their platforms so devices will come with AWS Greengrass built-in. Customers that want to use AWS Greengrass with existing connected devices that are AWS Greengrass-capable can download the AWS Greengrass execution environment from Amazon S3 or the AWS Management Console. In addition, Canonical will distribute AWS Greengrass through the Ubuntu Snap software channel app store for Ubuntu Linux software.
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