US Signal: U.S. Signal Launches Kiosk To Ease Cloud Data Migration

U.S. Signal, a network provider offering colocation, security and computing services in the U.S. Midwest, has introduced its Cloud Kiosk, an onboarding tool to quicken uploading of data to the cloud.Announced on Feb. 11, the Cloud Kiosk allows users to bring their hard drives, servers or other storage devices to a U.S. Signal data center to upload data to the cloud over the company's low-latency, unmetered access point.Explore the use of onsite kiosks in data centers to reduce latency during cloud migration.The kiosk connects to the cloud using a low-latency, unmetered access point through a dedicated Internet or multiprotocol label switching (MPLS) VPN Gigabit Ethernet connection. Customers can use the company’s direct 1GB connection to upload data to the U.S. Signal’s cloud-hosting platform, Matt VanderZwaag, director of product development at U.S. Signal, told CruxialCIO.U.S. Signal introduces a cloud-migration kiosk.“Most customers will come in with a laptop and also a hard drive that connects with USB,” VanderZwaag said. “All we’re providing to them is an uplink 1GB conection to the backbone.”An alternative to the kiosk is to ship the hard drive to U.S. Signal, and the company will transfer the data to the cloud platform.Latency is often an issue when uploading data to the cloud, noted Amanda Regnerus, vice president of marketing at U.S. Signal. The kiosk reduces data latency rates from 15-35 milliseconds to 1-2 milliseconds, according to the company.“Your cloud infrastructure is only as good as the network connectivity to get in and out of the cloud,” Regnerus told CruxialCIO. “The closer to that actual internet backbone, the better.”By using the Cloud Kiosk, users can eliminate days or weeks from data migration time, according to VanderZwaag.Hosting data in the cloud also provides a disaster-recovery plan to back up data in the event of a power outage, VanderZwaag noted.U.S. Signal has installed the Cloud Kiosk in its Madison, Wis., data center and plans to include it in two future sites in the Grand Rapids, Mich., area.Short Title: Reporter: BrianHorowitzImages: officecloudSecondary Categories: CustomersOperationsData CenterNetworkingHits: 0On Point: Storage King EMC Takes On The Public CloudHP Launches New Investing Plans For The Move To The Cloud