One way to store data, large or small, in the cloud is with Amazon Elastic Block Storage (EBS) from Amazon Web Services (AWS). An advantage of Amazon EBS is the capability to quickly import enormous quantities of data that would take days to upload via the Internet. This feature, AWS Import/Export, utilizes portable storage devices, physical shipping, and high-speed internal networking. The result is that you can transfer many drives full of data to the cloud by shipping them to AWS.
For added efficiency Amazon receives storage devices at data centers on either end of the U.S.: Virgina and California. For large amounts of data the time required to send a portable hard drive physically is a fraction of the time it would take to travel online.Whenever an upload time is measured in days consider this option from AWS.
Here’s how it works:
- You put your data on a portable storage device. USB, eSATA, and internal SATA hard drives are all supported.
- Login to Amazon Web Services to request a unique job identifier. You will be informed the AWS shipping address for your job.
- Print the bar code label(s) and attach to your device(s).
- Send the shipment to Amazon Web Services.
- Amazon securely transfers the device to its data center for loading.
- Amazon returns the device.




