This new Amazon Web Services computer is near indestructible and almost as light as a laptop

Amazon Web Services has launched yet another product that it hopes will help customers add even more data to its cloud storage ecosystem.

The new Snowcone device allows users to process data on-premise ahead of being transferred to Amazon’s data centers and servers either physically (it comes with an e-ink label) or via the internet.

The machine is box-like in shape (23 cm x 15 cm x 8 cm) and weighs 2.1 kg, which is barely more than a 15-inch laptop. It's also ruggedized, meeting stringent ruggedization standards (ISTA-3A, ASTM D4169, and MIL-STD-810G) for free-fall shock and operational vibration.

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Snowcone is also dust-tight and water resistant (meeting the IP65 International Protection Marking IEC standard) thanks to a combination of smart design, thick bumpers and plenty of shock absorbing material.

Inside there are two processors (Graviton2 perhaps), 4GB of RAM, 8TB storage, a pair of USB Type-C connectors and two Ethernet ports.

The service is currently available only in North America and caters to a niche audience looking for what Amazon describes as “an IoT hub, data aggregation point, application monitor, or lightweight analytics engine.”

The first five days of on-premise usage are included in the service fee of $60. Any additional usage incurs an extra $5 per day, with a lost device fee of $2,000. In addition, while any data transferred into Amazon S3 is free, transferring it out will cost $30 per TB, which is rather expensive for cloud backup.