Amazon has removed another significant obstacle to enterprise adoption of Amazon Web Services with the introduction of AWS Import/Export to allow easier movement of large datasets in and out of the service.

AWS Import/Export uses the old and still surprisingly efficient snail mail method of data transfer, where a business basically bundles up and sends a portable hard drive full of bits and some clerk in the basement at Amazon plugs it in and uploads it to the company server farm, a process that takes about ten seconds instead of ten weeks and avoids bandwidth costs on both ends. Someone once said to never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of magnetic tapes; Amazon has apparently heard the adage.

The method is a boon to any company that has a large dataset it wishes to store or process in AWS, but the enterprise is more likely to have larger datasets in the first place, and also comprises an underserved market for the company. Amazon has to work harder and provide more amenities to get enterprise customers off their own networks, and this is a good step in that direction.