Enabling offline disk import for Google Cloud Storage

Transferring large data sets (in the hundreds of terabytes and beyond) can be expensive and time-consuming over the public network. To help, we're beginning a limited preview of offline disk import for Google Cloud Storage, which lets you load data by sending us a physical hard disk drives (HDDs) of data that we load on your behalf. Using this option can be helpful if you’re limited to a slow, unreliable, or expensive Internet connection.



To use offline disk import, write your data to HDDs and then ship them to a Google import center using a mail carrier. For security during shipment, the data on the HDDs must be encrypted. Upon receiving the shipment, Google uploads the data into an empty Cloud Storage bucket that you designate. Because the data is loaded directly via Google's network, this approach may be faster or less expensive than transferring data over the Internet.



Offline disk import have a flat fee of $80 per HDD irrespective of the drive capacity or data size. During the limited preview, offline disk import is available for customers with a return address based in the United States. If you’re interested in using offline disk import, sign up for the limited preview. If you are outside the United states and are interested in offline disk import also let us know and we will follow up.



We are pleased to add this additional option for getting your data into the cloud. If you have a moderately sized data set, aren’t in a hurry to transfer your data, or have excellent throughput over the internet, you’ll likely be best served by using gsutil tool to transfer the data over the Internet.





- Posted by Lamia Youseff, Software Engineer