Amazon is using trucks to ship hard drives for the largest data transfers. It’s more efficient than doing it over internet. They also offer a service where they will put the data you want in a drive, mail it to you, and after you’re done, you send the drive back.
It's also used for sending huge amounts of data long distances. "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of tapes hurtling down the highway." That's usually attributed to Andrew S. Tanenbaum, but wikipedia follows that with "other alleged speakers include..." so take that with a grain of salt. They do note that the first problem in his book on computer networks asks students to calculate the throughput of a Saint Bernard carrying floppy disks.
fishos@lemmy.world 6 months ago
StopSpazzing@lemmy.world 6 months ago
Microsoft Azure Data Box Disk is offered also.
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/databox/data-box-disk-overview
blackluster117@possumpat.io 6 months ago
Do we assume the Saint Bernard is spherical and ignores air resistance?
rockSlayer@lemmy.world 6 months ago
No, it’s for real. The bandwidth of sending a truckload of disks to a destination can get to literally Tbps speeds. Latency is a different problem
blackluster117@possumpat.io 6 months ago
Oh, I’m aware. Just making a tongue in cheek physics joke since they said he put that problem in a textbook.