Google announced the launch of Offline Media Import/Export for Google Cloud Storage, enabling users to load data into any class (Standard, DRA, Nearline) by sending physical media like hard disk drives, tapes, and USB drives to third-party service providers who upload data for you.

The company says this will be helpful to you if you’re stuck with a slow, unreliable, or expensive internet connection, noting that the service is fast, easy, and includes a chain-of-custody process.

“It’s faster than doing it yourself,” says product manager Ben Chong. “Popular business DSL plans feature download speeds that exceed 10Mbps (megabits per second). However, upload speeds generally top out at 1Mbps, with most plans providing just 768kbps (kilobits per second) for upload. This means that uploading a single terabyte (TB) of data will take more than 100 days! This also assumes that no one else is using the same network connection. With Offline Media Import/Export, this process can now be completed in days instead of months.”

“It’s simple: Save and encrypt your data to the media of your choice (hard drives, tapes, etc.) and ship them to the third party service provider through your preferred courier service,” adds Chong. “It’s protected: The encrypted data will be uploaded to Google Cloud Storage using high speed infrastructure. Third party service providers like Iron Mountain can offer a chain-of-custody process for your data. Once data upload is complete, Iron Mountain can send the hard drive back to you, store it within their vault or destroy it.”

So far, Google only has two third-party service providers listed (Iron Mountain and another that isnt actually named), but presumably this list will grow in time.

More on Offline Media Import/Export here.

Image via Google