Amazon Supports Cloud Data Import, Export

By Barb Mosher | Published May 21, 2009

Amazon Web Services to Offer Import and Export Capabilities Amazon Web Services, or AWS (news, site) is has a limited beta out for a new service. Called AWS Import/Export, you will soon have the ability to move your content into and out of the cloud much easier and quicker.

Using Amazon's high speed internal network, you will be able to move your data onto, or off of, just about any storage device — as long as it meets the compatibility requirements.

It's not to difficult to understand why you would want this capability, but Amazon does offer a few ideas:

Data Migration: Loading data into the cloud for the first time has never been faster.
Disaster Recovery: Using Amazon S3 for storage of your website for disaster recovery purposes? Now you can get your website back up and running faster.
Offsite Backup: Maybe you want to use S3 to store basic backups, whether full or incremental.
Direct Data Exchange: Partners send you data on devices on a regular basis? Now they can send that data directly to your S3 bucket.

This new service basically works by you putting your data on a storage device and then ship that device to Amazon Web Services to process in their secure data center. Of course there are a few other steps to complete prior to shipping off your device.

The beta is currently limited to importing data to AWS for US buckets. The export capability and support for EU buckets will come later.

Get yourself registered for the beta program if this new service interests you.