IBM Cloud Mass Data Migration

In a blog post, Michael Fork, distinguished engineer and director, cloud infrastructure, IBM Watson and cloud platform, at SoftLayer Technologies. Inc., an IBM Corp.‘s company, wrote:

Introducing IBM Cloud Mass Data Migration:
a fast, simple, secure way to transport data to the IBM Cloud

While cloud continues to transform industries and become the foundation for digital innovation, there is still a good majority of organizations that experience obstacles when moving data from their on-premises servers to the cloud.

Speed is of the essence when it comes to data migration, but transferring large data sets can typically take weeks or months, depending on a company’s access to high-speed bandwidth. Other data transport barriers can include high network costs, security concerns or a lack of resources, including migration tools, personnel or Internet connectivity.

To remove these barriers and make it simpler for clients to move to the IBM Cloud, we are launching IBM Cloud Mass Data Migration, an economical, large-capacity portable storage device in the market, offering more storage capacity per dollar than similar products. This new solution is designed to help companies accelerate the secure movement of data from terabytes to petabytes into the IBM Cloud.

Designed for durability and ruggedness, Mass Data Migration portable storage devices have a useable capacity of 120TB and feature AES 256-bit encryption to ensure that data is well protected during transport and ingestion. Each device also uses RAID-6, a standard in redundancy and protection to ensure data integrity. Using a simple process, customers copy their data to the device and ship it back to IBM, where the data is offloaded to IBM Cloud Object Storage for use across the IBM Cloud platform.

The process is designed for speed and ease. With Mass Data Migration, customers can migrate 120TB of data in seven days, with round-trip use of UPS Next Day Air included in the overall service.

Shipping data may seem like a retro idea, but for some organizations, Mass Data Migration is the fastest, simplest and most affordable way to move massive amounts of data into the cloud without disrupting daily operations.

For large transfers for media and entertainment, analytics and companies in remote locations
Cloud Mass Data Migration is an option for any organization looking to transfer tens to hundreds of terabytes of data or more to the cloud. It can help companies free up on premises storage, implement a backup and recovery plan, create an active archive or media repository, or take advantage of services including database and analytics solutions offered in the IBM Cloud to extract deeper value from their data. Companies can also use the service as part of a data center de-commission strategy to ensure sensitive data is secured and deployed in the IBM Cloud during downsizing, expansion or relocation.

IBM Cloud Mass Data Migration is appealing to companies who need to store,manage and access large video, audio and image files. Once they get their data into the IBM Cloud, they can leverage cognitive services like Watson Content Enrichment to gain intelligence from their unstructured data and make more informed business decisions about the content they create, acquire and deliver to users or viewers.

Additionally, the service meets a need for companies with little to no access to high-speed Internet, including those in remote areas, companies operating on ships, oil rigs or farms, or those that need to limit their Internet capacity for daily production instead of data transfer.

Ship more data in days versus months
For many customers, Mass Data Migration is an option to quickly take advantage of cloud computing with IBM. It provides a secure, reliable way to move large data sets into the cloud within days – as opposed to weeks or months with alternative transfer methods – saving companies an amount of time and hassle.

With a usable data capacity of 120TB, Mass Data Migration has 20% more storage capacity than similar solutions in the market so that companies can move even more data to the cloud. For extremely large data transfer needs, multiple devices can be used all at once, or over time.

IBM Cloud Mass Data Migration is the solution that many of company’s clients have been waiting for. It is available in the U.S. for a rate of $395 including UPS Next Day Air shipping, with regional and global expansion coming soon in the EU.