Revolutionizing Cloud Uploads: AWS Unveils Physical High-Speed Data Transfer Terminals

Amazon Web Services (AWS), the cloud computing arm of Amazon, launched its most recent and innovative file upload system at jaw-dropping speeds. The catch? One needs to "visit" the physical location of the new service.

At the re:Invest 2024 in Las Vegas on Sunday, Amazon introduced their new Data Transfer Terminals that would allow customers to physically visit the locations and manually upload their data to the cloud service.

Perhaps the best part is that this would work whether on a personal level or for businesses since the data upload rate is at a whopping 400Gbps. Data is transferred through a secure "high throughput" connection, according to a blog post by Channy Yun, a principal developer advocate at AWS.

With this awesome service, there will always be an attendant cost. According to TechCrunch, Amazon will be charging customers per port per hour.

Customers would have to reserve a timeslot when they would be going to the physical locations of the Data Transfer Terminals. The reservation is paid by the hour, hence, whether a user utilizes the port and makes the upload or not, the port is paid.

Upon reservation of the timeslot, AWS will then be assigning data transfer specialists from their organizations.

"On your reserved date and time, visit the location and confirm access with the building reception. You're escorted by building staff to the floor and your reserved room of the Data Transfer Terminal location," he explained.

Yun also elaborated on how customers will be able to make use of the service.

"You can reserve a time slot to visit your nearest location and upload data rapidly and securely to any AWS public endpoints, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), Amazon Elastic File System (Amazon EFS), or others, using a high throughput connection. Using AWS Data Transfer Terminal, you can significantly reduce the time of ingesting data with high throughput connectivity in the location near by you," he said.

He then explained that after data is already uploaded, data can be accessed using AWS services. What makes it more convenient is that teams can access the data as well. All that the client would do is to add the name of the team and description together with the agreement of service terms and conditions.

The initial Data Transfer Terminals are located in Los Angeles and New York. Plans are underway to establish more locations around the world. Each location is equipped with fiber optic cable, patch panel and a PC for monitoring data transfer processes.

According to an Amazon support page, for U.S. to U.S. data transfers, AWS charges will be at $300 per port per hour. On the other hand, U.S. to EU data transfers cost higher at $500.