If you are unfamiliar with Azure Data Box, it is a rentable data-transfer and storage appliance that is ruggedized and tamper-proof. Data Box provides up to 100TB of data transfer and allows Azure infrastructure to be created on the move. Microsoft also provides a Azure Data Box Disk and Azure Data Box Heavy. Azure Data Box Edge is described as a “1U rack-mountable appliance”. It allows users to manage and store data before transferring it to Azure datacenters. Microsoft says Data Box Edge can be “racked alongside your existing enterprise hardware or live in non-traditional environments from factory floors to retail aisles.” The appliance comes with support for applications in containers, while it can also automatically transfer data to Azure Storage. Customers are able to use Azure Data Box Edge to run AI and machine learning solutions locally through an Intel Arria 10 field programmable gate array (FPGA).
Availability
Microsoft says Data Box Edge is available from Azure now with a monthly charge of $336.60 for 10TB of storage. The features of the service are as follows:
Local Compute – Run containerized applications at your location. Use these to interact with your local systems or to pre-process your data before it transfers to Azure. Network Storage Gateway – Automatically transfer data between the local appliance and your Azure Storage account. Data Box Edge caches the hottest data locally and speaks file and object protocols to your on-premises applications. Azure Machine Learning utilizing an Intel Arria 10 FPGA – Use the on-board Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) to accelerate inferencing of your data, then transfer it to the cloud to re-train and improve your models. Cloud managed – Easily order your device and manage these capabilities for your fleet from the cloud using the Azure Portal.
