Lesson 1: The AWS Hybrid and Edge Map on One Page

Why start with a map?

When someone says "we need AWS in the factory" or "we need the cloud closer to the users", the first mistake is to jump straight to a product name. AWS has more than a dozen hybrid and edge services, and several have been renamed, split or closed to new customers. In this level you build one map and sort every service on it by asking three questions:

1. Where does the hardware sit? In your building, in an AWS or telecom facility, or in a box you ship.
2. Who runs that hardware? You, or AWS.
3. What does the control plane manage? The control plane is the API and console that issues commands, and it nearly always lives in an AWS Region. What differs is what it reaches: your servers, AWS racks, or devices.

Think of it like property. Some services are a remote building manager for a house you already own. Some put AWS's own furniture into your house. Some rent you a flat in AWS's building across town. Some are a removal van.

The six groups

Where Dedicated Local Zones go: AWS calls them a type of Local Zone. But they were announced in August 2023 as AWS-managed infrastructure for one customer's exclusive use, placed in a location the customer chooses. Ask "where does the hardware sit?" and the answer is your chosen site, so this map puts them with provider hardware on site.

Former names and retirements

The naming history is where most outdated architecture diagrams go wrong. Here is the record:

• Snow Family → Snowball Edge only. Snowmobile, the 100 PB truck, was retired in spring 2024. Snowcone stopped taking orders on 12 Nov 2024, and support for existing devices ended on 12 Nov 2025. Older Snowball Edge models (Storage Optimized 80 TB, Compute Optimized 52 vCPU and GPU) were discontinued on 12 Nov 2024. Then the AWS service availability update of 13 Oct 2025 moved Snowball Edge into maintenance, which closed it to new customers from 7 Nov 2025. AWS now points new customers to DataSync, Data Transfer Terminal or Outposts.
• Greengrass V1 → V2. V2 shipped in December 2020. V1 entered sunset in the October 2025 update, and AWS discontinued it on 7 Oct 2026. After that date its resources can no longer be accessed.
• Storage Gateway. Amazon FSx File Gateway closed to new customers on 28 Oct 2024. The physical Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance has not been sold since 12 May 2025, and existing units are supported until May 2028. The software gateways (S3 File, Volume, Tape) continue.
• New arrivals: EKS Hybrid Nodes (GA 1 Dec 2024) and Data Transfer Terminal (Dec 2024, starting in Los Angeles and New York). Data Transfer Terminal is a staffed AWS site where you bring your own drives and upload over a fast link. In February 2026 it added Seattle, Phoenix, London, Paris, Sydney and Tokyo.

Gotcha: "Existing customers only" does not mean switched off. It means an account that never used the service cannot start now. If a 2023 runbook says "order a Snowcone", the runbook is out of date, not your console.

Walkthrough: see the edge from the CLI

Metro and telecom edge zones appear as extra zone types in a Region. You can list them yourself:

# List every zone type in London, including ones you have not opted into
aws ec2 describe-availability-zones \
  --region eu-west-2 \
  --all-availability-zones \
  --query 'AvailabilityZones[].[ZoneName,ZoneType,OptInStatus]' \
  --output table

The output looks like this (shortened):

| eu-west-2a                    | availability-zone | opt-in-not-required |
| eu-west-2-wl1-lon-wlz-1       | wavelength-zone   | not-opted-in        |
| eu-west-2-wl1-man-wlz-1       | wavelength-zone   | not-opted-in        |

ZoneType tells you the group: local-zone and wavelength-zone both belong to metro and telecom edge. On-site hardware has its own API instead:

aws outposts list-outposts            # provider hardware on site: racks and servers
aws ssm describe-instance-information \
  --query 'InstanceInformationList[].InstanceId'
# management plane: hybrid-activated servers show IDs starting with "mi-"
# EC2 instances show "i-"

The mi- prefix is a quick way to tell the two apart. It marks your own server, registered with Systems Manager through a hybrid activation, as opposed to an EC2 instance.

Keep the map as data

Put the map in your repository so each design review starts from facts, not memory:

# hybrid-map.yaml, reviewed 2026-10-30
rugged_devices:
  - name: Snowball Edge
    status: existing-customers-only
    since: 2025-11-07          # AWS service availability update, 13 Oct 2025
    successors: [DataSync, Data Transfer Terminal, Outposts]
iot:
  - name: IoT Greengrass V1
    status: end-of-support
    since: 2026-10-07
    successor: IoT Greengrass V2

Best practice: AWS now publishes service availability updates every quarter (Oct 2025, Mar, Jun and Sep 2026 so far). Put a calendar reminder after each one and check the map. None of the 2026 updates changed a service on this map, but the next one might.

Key takeaways

• Sort any hybrid or edge service with three questions: where the hardware sits, who runs it, and what the control plane manages.
• Management planes reach your hardware. Provider hardware on site puts AWS hardware in your building. Metro and telecom edge keeps AWS hardware in AWS or carrier facilities near users.
• Snowball Edge has been existing-customers-only since 7 Nov 2025. Snowcone and Snowmobile are gone.
• Greengrass V1 ended on 7 Oct 2026. Use V2.
• FSx File Gateway (closed 28 Oct 2024) and the Storage Gateway Hardware Appliance (not sold since 12 May 2025) are legacy. DataSync and Data Transfer Terminal are the current ways to move data.