Google Migration Services/Velostrata: Product Overview and Insight

Bottom Line

For organizations migrating to Google Cloud, Google’s own migration services are a very economical option, but they are somewhat limited. Its tool set is not as extensive as that of other top cloud computing companies.

However, Google’s acquisition of Velostrata greatly expanded its migration capabilities and gave the company the ability to dramatically speed cloud migrations. Velostrata is an effective, efficient tool. 

Google and Velostrata together give enterprises the ability to transfer most workloads extremely quickly, keeping total cost of ownership and downtime very low. Given that Google Cloud is a leader in the overall cloud computing market, Google’s migration option is a top choice.

Jump to: Google Cloud/Velostrata Features Table

Company Description

Best known for its search engine, Google is one of the largest technology companies in the world. Owned by parent company Alphabet, Google reported revenue of $32.7 billion for the second quarter of 2018, a 26 percent year-over-year increase. That resulted in operating income of $2.8 billion. Alphabet stock is a component of the S&P 500 and is traded on the NASDAQ exchange under the symbols GOOGL and GOOG.

Founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google has its headquarters in Menlo Park, California. The company launched its first cloud computing service, App Engine, in 2008. Today, Google Cloud is one of the four largest cloud computing vendors in the world. Google Cloud customers include HSBC, Target, Twentieth Century Fox, Twitter, WeightWatchers, PayPal, Bloomberg, Nielsen, Chevron, eBay, Colgate-Palmolive and The New York Times.

Product Description

Like the other major cloud computing vendors, Google Cloud offers several different cloud migration services. Its Cloud Data Transfer family of services allows users to transfer data to its storage products or to its BigQuery data warehouse. Google also has 100 TB or 480 TB data transfer appliances for offline data transfer.

In May 2018, Google purchased Velostrata, an Israel-based cloud migration startup with technology that speeds the data migration process. According to the company, it can make migrations up to ten times faster and get apps running in the cloud in 10 minutes or less while using half the bandwidth of other migration services.

Features

Supported Clouds

Google Cloud Data Transfer supports only Google Cloud. Velostrata used to support AWS, Azure and Google, but it appears to be focusing solely on Google since the acquisition deal.

Data Migration

Yes

Server Migration

Yes, through Velostrata

Discovery

Yes, through Velostrata

Planning

Yes, through Velostrata

Project Management

Yes, through Velostrata

Dashboard

No

Physical Hardware

Yes

Security

Data migrated via the transfer appliance is encrypted and deleted after delivery.

Services Available

Google cloud offers consulting, training, certification, labs and technical account management.

Pricing

Regular Cloud Data Transfer is free of charge. Google BigQuery Data Transfer is free for data coming from Google Storage; prices vary for data coming from other services.

The 100 TB Transfer Appliance costs $300 plus shipping for 10 days of use. The 480 TB Transfer Appliance costs $1800 plus shipping for 25 days of use.

Velostrata pricing is not available.

Google/Velostrata Features Table