Google Will Upload Mailed Hard Drives, USB Drives To Cloud For Developers

While the vast majority of us common users can get by with cloud storage services like Dropbox and Google Drive by simply uploading files via our local WiFi connection or from our phones, it's not exactly the same situation for developers with terabytes of data that needs to be migrated to cloud storage in a hurry. Fortunately for them, Google now offers an "Offline Media Import/Export" service that will take mailed in hard drives, USB flash drives, and tapes and upload the data to the cloud, for a fee, of course.

In explaining the service, Google mentions that it could take as long as 100 days for one terabyte of data to be uploaded over a standard business DSL connection. Depending on the cost and the amount of data needing to be uploaded, this option could be much more efficient for developers.

Google originally launched the service as a trial back in 2013, only accepting hard drives and charging a flat $80 fee per disk. But now that they're including additional physical storage formats, the pricing has changed, and it isn't clear what the new fees are.

Also important to note is that Google won't be handling the transfer of data themselves, but instead giving it to third-party company Iron Mountain. Unfortunately the "Export" part of the service is still a bit of a mystery, as everything is focused on uploading data to Google's cloud, and not downloading data and mailing customers a hard drive. The service is currently limited to those in North America, but there's mention of offering it in other parts of the world as well.

SOURCE Google

VIA TechCrunch