Amazon Import/Export : A Key Latency Issue Addressed

From Amazon this morning,

Dear Amazon Web Services Customer,

We are excited to announce the limited beta of AWS Import/Export, a new offering that accelerates moving large amounts of data into and out of AWS using portable storage devices for transport. AWS transfers your data directly onto and off of storage devices using Amazon’s high-speed internal network and bypassing the Internet. For significant data sets, AWS Import/Export is often faster than Internet transfer and more cost effective than upgrading your connectivity.

You can use AWS Import/Export for:

• Data Migration – If you have data you need to upload into the AWS cloud for the first time, AWS Import/Export is often much faster than transferring that data via the Internet.
• Offsite Backup – Send full or incremental backups to Amazon S3 for reliable and redundant offsite storage.
• Direct Data Interchange – If you regularly receive content on portable storage devices from your business associates, you can have them send it directly to AWS for import into your Amazon S3 buckets.
• Disaster Recovery – In the event you need to quickly retrieve a large backup stored in Amazon S3, use AWS Import/Export to transfer the data to a portable storage device and deliver it to your site.

The AWS Import/Export Beta currently supports importing data into Amazon S3 buckets in the US, and participation is limited. Export and EU support will be added in the coming months. For more information and to be considered for participation, please see the AWS Import/Export Detail Page.

We hope you find this new capability useful, and we look forward to your feedback.

Sincerely,

The AWS Import/Export Team

The AWS Import/Export Detail Page has a more information on when it makes sense to use the service,

When to Use AWS Import/Export

If you have large amounts of data to load and an Internet connection with limited bandwidth, the time required to prepare and ship a portable storage device to AWS can be a small percentage of the time it would take to transfer your data over the internet. If loading your data over the Internet would take a week or more, you should consider using AWS Import/Export.

Below is a table that provides guidance on when it’ll take at least week to transfer your data over the Internet into AWS (and hence, when you should consider using AWS Import/Export). For example, if you have a 10Mbps connection and expect to utilize 80% of your network capacity for the data transfer, for uploads of 600GB or more, it’ll take you at least a week to transfer to AWS over the Internet and you should consider using AWS Import/Export.

Available Internet Connection	Theoretical Min. Number of Days to Transfer  1TB at 80% Network Utilization	When to Consider AWS Import/Export?
T1 (1.544Mbps)	82 days	100GB or more
10Mbps	13 days	600GB or more
T3 (44.736Mbps)	3 days	2TB or more
100Mbps	1 to 2 days	5TB or more
1000Mbps	Less than 1 day	60TB or more

For more details regarding data loading costs see the AWS Import/Export Calculator.