On Sunday at the re:Invent 2024 conference in Las Vegas, Amazon announced a somewhat unusual new service for Amazon Web Services (AWS) customers: A data terminal, a set of physical locations where customers can connect their storage devices to upload them to the AWS cloud.
So how exactly does it work? Using the AWS management console, customers can reserve a time slot, optionally designate specialists from their organization to process and transfer data, and visit a data terminal to upload their data.
“On the reserved date and time, [you] will visit the location and confirm access at the building’s front desk,” explained Channy Yoon, AWS’s general counsel for developer issues, in a blog post. “[After that], the building staff will guide you to the floor and to the reserved room where the data terminal is located […] Don’t be surprised if there are no AWS signs in the building or room. This is for security reasons to keep your workplace as secret as possible.”
The first data terminals were opened in New York and Los Angeles, and more will be opened in the future. Each location is equipped with a patch panel, fiber optic cable, and a computer to monitor data transfer tasks.
Why would anyone want to drag all their hard drives to the building and sit there waiting for the download to complete? Amazon claims that the Data Transfer Terminal provides high download speeds (up to 400 Gbps) over a secure, “high-bandwidth” connection.
However, you have to pay for this privilege. Amazon charges a “per port hour” fee for using ports at data terminal locations during a backup – even if no data is being transferred.
“At a minimum, you will be charged a port hour fee for the number of hours you reserve,” Amazon’s support page says. “You will be charged a port hour fee for each port you use and/or request as part of your reservation.”
The port fee is $300 for US-to-U.S. data transfers (i.e., uploads to a U.S. AWS data center) and $500 for US-to-EU data transfers (i.e., uploads to the EU region). Amazon does not provide prices for data transfers to other regions of the world.
