When moving to the cloud, shifting data over fiber can be a painstaking process because of poor connectivity and bandwidth. 

Following on AWS’ Snowball released two years ago (and its shipping container truck transfer service, Snowmobile, brought out last year), IBM has introduced a portable storage device and physical data transfer service, calling it Cloud Mass Data Migration. With nifty wheels and a handle, it is rougly the size and shape of your typical cabin suitcase, and able to hold up to 120TB of data.

Next day delivery 

For $395 per device, IBM delivers the suitcase, picks it up via UPS’ Next Day Air service, and kindly uploads the data onto its cloud platform. 

The hardware features AES 256 bit encryption, in-line compression and a RAID 6 configuration, and is reinforced to endure being shipped back and forth: its case is said to be waterproof and shockproof, and has a tamper evident seal. 

The product is targeted mainly at media companies, and more broadly organizations whose reluctance to move to the cloud mainly stems from the prospect of a tedious migration process. 

Currently the service is only available in the United States, but the company states that an EU release is planned for the near future.