Amazon Web Services Inc. has announced new features which increase the computing tasks that can be performed with the Snowball Edge appliance for data migration between connected devices, and also boost the level of security. Specifically, a local version of AWS’ web-scale configuration tool Elastic Compute Cloud, or EC2, can now run directly on the machine.

“You can take an Amazon Machine Image out of EC2, port it into your Snowball, it will get deployed to the edge, and now you’ve got a full virtual machine model,” said Mark Ryland (pictured), director of the Office of the CISO at AWS. “We made it really easy now to make your virtual machines run in the Snowball disconnected environment.”

Ryland spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Jeff Frick (@JeffFrick), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during the AWS Summit in NYC. They discussed added layers of Snowball security, the care taken by AWS to protect cloud connectivity, and increased Lambda adoption by customers. (* Disclosure below.)

Strengthened security in transport

AWS has also taken steps to make sure Snowball is secure in transport. The device now has multiple layers of encryption, and authentication keys will not be released until the shipper has confirmed safe delivery.

“We’ve got to make sure that’s a very secure environment, and we’ve done the work to do that,” Ryland said.

In an age when computer systems and databases are getting hacked with regularity, AWS has managed to protect its reputation as a cloud provider with a high level of security. Devices at the edge, such as Snowball and internet of things products, forced AWS to carefully adopt new protocols for cloud access.

“When we launched IoT we took a controversial decision; we did not permit insecure connections,” Ryland said. “That excluded a lot of small devices to be able to connect to our back end.”

Added Transport Layer Security capabilities to microcontroller-type devices for making secure connections ultimately provided a safer IoT interface for the cloud provider. AWS is seeing an increase in Lambda’s serverless model adoption, driven partly by its attractive offering in cost and also by security to thwart the discovery nature of malicious hackers, according to Ryland.

“If you’re in a Lambda function, you’ve got about 30 seconds to figure out what’s going on and then you’re dead. So good luck,” Ryland concluded.

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the AWS Summit in NYC. (* Disclosure: Amazon Web Services Inc. sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither AWS nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE