Moving 75 TB into Cloud Storage with Google-recommended practices

PCA By islever Editorial Last updated

Creating a migration plan (i.e., documents and architectural diagrams). Configuring individual storage systems.

Short answer

A Ship 75 TB on a Transfer Appliance and use the Transfer Appliance Rehydrator to decrypt it into Cloud Storage.

Question

Your company is moving 75 TB of data into Google Cloud. You want to use Cloud Storage and follow Google-recommended practices. What should you do?
  1. Move your data onto a Transfer Appliance. Use a Transfer Appliance Rehydrator to decrypt the data into Cloud Storage. Correct Answer
  2. Move your data onto a Transfer Appliance. Use Cloud Dataprep to decrypt the data into Cloud Storage.
  3. Install gsutil on each server that contains data. Use resumable transfers to upload the data into Cloud Storage.
  4. Install gsutil on each server containing data. Use streaming transfers to upload the data into Cloud Storage.

Key Takeaways

The question tests whether you know Transfer Appliance's documented size and upload-duration thresholds, and that the Rehydrator — not gsutil or Dataprep — completes the appliance workflow into Cloud Storage.

For a 75 TB on-premises migration into Cloud Storage, Google's suitability guidance points to the offline Transfer Appliance, whose data is decrypted into the bucket by the Transfer Appliance Rehydrator — option A.

Common mistake: Option C is the tempting pick because gsutil resumable transfers do work on-premises, but at 75 TB Google positions gsutil for only a few TB and recommends the offline appliance once data exceeds 10 TB and the upload would run over a week.

Expert Analysis

The suitability rule decides this question Google publishes explicit Transfer Appliance suitability criteria: the data set should be at least 10 TB (20 TB in the 2.2 docs) and the upload should take more than a week at your available bandwidth. 75 TB clears the size threshold by a wide margin, and the vendor's own arithmetic shows that at a reasonable 1 Gbps link, roughly 100 TB takes over 10 days online — so 75 TB exceeds a week as well. Both criteria are satisfied, which makes Transfer Appliance the Google-recommended offline path, and option A is the only option that uses it correctly.

Why the decrypt step must be the Rehydrator A Transfer Appliance ships encrypted; after it reaches Google and the data is copied, the appliance's contents are rehydrated (decrypted) directly into the destination Cloud Storage bucket. That is exactly the wording of option A. Option B names Cloud Dataprep, a data-preparation and profiling tool that neither performs bulk ingestion nor decrypts an appliance — it cannot complete the workflow, so B is invalid regardless of the transfer choice.

Why the gsutil options lose Option C's resumable transfers and option D's streaming transfers describe the same tool at different protocols; neither changes the underlying fact that gsutil pushes data over your network link. Google positions gsutil for on-premises sources measured in a few TB, while large-scale on-premises moves belong to Transfer Appliance (or Storage Transfer Service for cloud-to-cloud). At 75 TB you would be paying for multi-week bandwidth and engineering time instead of using the shipped-appliance path — the operational consequence is a slower, more expensive migration with no offsetting benefit.

The change that would flip the answer If the data set were, say, 4 TB, or if the 75 TB lived in Amazon S3 rather than on-premises servers, option A would be wrong: small sets use gsutil resumable uploads (C) and cloud-to-cloud copies use Storage Transfer Service. The scenario also never states that bandwidth is plentiful; when the question leaves bandwidth unstated and the volume exceeds 10 TB, the appliance is the intended answer. Note that one commenter flags ambiguity — an appliance requires physical and network security review before a third-party device touches the datacenter — but that is an implementation caveat, not a reason to prefer gsutil under Google's documented guidance.

Official Reference

These links open the official vendor documentation in a new tab.

Exam Strategy

On data-migration questions, quantify first: read the volume, convert it against the vendor's published thresholds (Transfer Appliance suits ≥10 TB and >1 week uploads), and let the arithmetic pick the tool rather than your familiarity with a command. Then validate each option's second step — a correct transfer method paired with an impossible post-step (Dataprep decrypting an appliance) is a distractor. Finally, check whether the scenario names a cloud source (S3) or a tiny volume; either flips the answer to Storage Transfer Service or gsutil resumable uploads.

Frequently Asked Questions

When should I choose Transfer Appliance over gsutil for Cloud Storage?

Use Transfer Appliance when the data set is at least 10 TB (20 TB in newer docs) and uploading over your link would take more than a week. Smaller sets, typically a few TB, are fine with gsutil resumable uploads.

What does the Transfer Appliance Rehydrator actually do?

It is the Google-side tool that takes the encrypted contents received on the appliance and decrypts them directly into your destination Cloud Storage bucket, completing the offline transfer workflow.

Why is Cloud Dataprep not valid for this migration?

Cloud Dataprep profiles and prepares tabular data; it neither ingests bulk data sets nor decrypts a Transfer Appliance, so it cannot move 75 TB into Cloud Storage.

More PCA FAQ →

Community Votes

A
88%
C
12%

88% of anonymous learners picked answer A. Votes are pick records left by other test-takers — they are not the verified answer.

Discussion 129 contributions

Compiled from public community threads and reader submissions, lightly edited for clarity. Handles and vote tallies are shown as recorded, and comments reflect the views of individual contributors.

From public community threads 30 of 129

  1. AshishK 👍 36
    It should be 'A' Transfer Appliance lets you quickly and securely transfer large amounts of data to Google Cloud Platform via a high capacity storage server that you lease from Google and ship to our datacenter. Transfer Appliance is recommended for data that exceeds 20 TB or would take more than a week to upload.
  2. KouShikyou 👍 30
    Why not A?
  3. nitinz 👍 14
    A, anything over 10TB goes via appliance.
  4. TosO 👍 12
    How can we propose a solution when we don't know the bandwidth available for the data transfer? In my opinion, the correct answer is A
  5. Yahowmy 👍 11
    To this date Transfer Appliance supported locations are only United States Canada European Union Norway Switzerland. What if data reside in a location other than this? C is the most convenience for this scenario.
Show 25 more comments
  1. Dannyygcp 👍 8
    Link:https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/2.0/overview Is Transfer Appliance suitable for me? Transfer Appliance is a good fit for your data transfer needs if: You are an existing Google Cloud Platform (GCP) customer. Your data size is greater than or equal to 10TB. Your data resides in locations that Transfer Appliance is available. It would take more than one week to upload your data. why not gsutil[Link:https://cloud.google.com/storage-transfer/docs/overview] Should you use gsutil or Storage Transfer Service? The gsutil command-line tool also enables you to transfer data between Cloud Storage and other locations. While you can use gsutil to work with Amazon S3 buckets and transfer data from Amazon S3 to Cloud Storage, Storage Transfer Service is recommended for this use case. Follow these rules of thumb when deciding whether to use gsutil or Storage Transfer Service: Transfer scenario Recommendation Transferring from another cloud storage provider Use Storage Transfer Service Transferring less than 1 TB from on-premises Use gsutil So the Correct Answer is A
  2. omermahgoub 👍 6
    Option B: Using Cloud Dataprep to decrypt the data into Cloud Storage is not a valid option, as Cloud Dataprep is a data preparation tool that does not support data transfer or decryption. Option C: Using resumable transfers to upload the data into Cloud Storage is not a recommended option for moving large amounts of data, as resumable transfers are designed for smaller data sets and may not be efficient for transferring large amounts of data. Option D: Using streaming transfers to upload the data into Cloud Storage is not a recommended option for moving large amounts of data, as streaming transfers are designed for transferring real-time data streams and may not be efficient for transferring large amounts of data. Therefore, the correct answer is A: Move your data onto a Transfer Appliance. Use a Transfer Appliance Rehydrator to decrypt the data into Cloud Storage.
  3. AWS56 👍 6
    Yes, It's A (https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/2.0/overview). Minimum transfer from a Transfer Appliance is 10 GB. b/w or speed is not part of the question. If you transfer more than 1~TB google recommends Transfer Appliance (https://cloud.google.com/storage-transfer/docs/overview). B is incorrect as Cloud Dataprep cannot be used to decrypt data. C,D are not recommended by Google. Correct Answer: A
  4. Ramheadhunter 👍 6
    Why assume a scenario no provided in the question. We need to choose the best case scenario based on available information instead of making assumptions. So A should be good.
  5. Shome 👍 5
    https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/2.0/overview No its 10 TB
  6. fraloca 👍 4
    "The gsutil tool is the standard tool for small- to medium-sized transfers (less than a few TB)" https://cloud.google.com/solutions/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#transfer-options
  7. onashwani 👍 4
    Here is the link: https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/2.2/overview
  8. Koushick 👍 4
    Answer is A.
  9. shashu07 👍 3
    Correct Answer: A Move your data onto a Transfer Appliance. Use a Transfer Appliance Rehydrator to decrypt the data into Cloud Storage. https://cloud.google.com/storage-transfer/docs/overview Should you use gsutil or Storage Transfer Service? The gsutil command-line tool also enables you to transfer data between Cloud Storage and other locations. While you can use gsutil to work with Amazon S3 buckets and transfer data from Amazon S3 to Cloud Storage, Storage Transfer Service is recommended for this use case. Follow these rules of thumb when deciding whether to use gsutil or Storage Transfer Service: Transfer scenario Recommendation Transferring from another cloud storage provider Use Storage Transfer Service Transferring less than 1 TB from on-premises Use gsutil Transferring more than 1 TB from on-premises Use Transfer service for on-premises data
  10. n_nana 👍 3 Answered A
    It will be more precise with info about the bandwidth Google says: The two main criteria to consider with Transfer Appliance are cost and speed. With reasonable network connectivity (for example, 1 Gbps), transferring 100 TB of data online takes over 10 days to complete. If this rate is acceptable, an online transfer is likely a good solution for your needs. If you only have a 100 Mbps connection (or worse from a remote location), the same transfer takes over 100 days. At this point, it's worth considering an offline-transfer option such as Transfer Appliance. So even for such 100 TB google choose between transfer appliance or online transfer. not going with gsutil at all. it is clear gsutil is suitable for small to medium size (less than 1 TB) so with no more details, google recommendation is A
  11. omermahgoub 👍 3
    The correct answer is A: Move your data onto a Transfer Appliance. Use a Transfer Appliance Rehydrator to decrypt the data into Cloud Storage. To move large amounts of data into Google Cloud, it is recommended to use Transfer Appliance. Transfer Appliance is a physical storage device that you can use to transfer large amounts of data to Google Cloud quickly and securely. Once you have moved your data onto a Transfer Appliance, you can use a Transfer Appliance Rehydrator to decrypt the data and load it into Cloud Storage.
  12. sgofficial 👍 3 Answered A
    A is correct ... https://cloud.google.com/architecture/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#transfer-options 1. gsutil is for lessthan <1 TB data with enough bandwidth, so C and D can be eliminated 2. option b can be eliminated since dataprep for decription is not correct 3. so only left over is a and its offline transfer, since the question did not give any time line when the transfer to be completed
  13. Gini 👍 3
    This question is really ambiguous. More background information is needed to decide between Transfer Appliance and gsutil... I would choose A because 75TB is really a lot of data. (But if this 75TB of data is stored across multiple servers, gsutil is good enough)
  14. RVivek 👍 3 Answered A
    gsutil is recommanded for data size less than a TB. That rules out C and D B says decrypt data using Dataprep not sure this is possible. https://cloud.google.com/solutions/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets#transfer-options
  15. meokey 👍 3 Answered A
    Is Transfer Appliance suitable for me? "Your data size is greater than or equal to 10TB." https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/4.0/overview#suitability
  16. awsarchitect5 👍 3 Answered A
    https://cloud.google.com/blog/ja/topics/developers-practitioners/how-transfer-your-data-google-cloud
  17. xigzhou 👍 3
    It's C, Transfer Appliance not the same as the Storage Transfer Service.
  18. Trappatoni 👍 3
    IT IS C https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/4.0#suitability
  19. jcmoranp 👍 3
    It's C, minimum transfer appliance is 100 TB
  20. MamthaSJ 👍 3
    Answer is A
  21. f0x 👍 2
    I believe the answer is A. Here it shows gsutil is good for private data center to Google Cloud where you are using " less than a few TB of data": https://cloud.google.com/solutions/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets This show where data size is greater than or equal to 10TB which is from our question: https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/2.0/overview This leaves A or B only. Data rehydration is used with transfer appliance: https://cloud.google.com/transfer-appliance/docs/2.0/data-rehydration Give these, I'll go with A also.
  22. AdityaGupta 👍 2
    Both A and C are correction options, but referring to table at https://cloud.google.com/solutions/migration-to-google-cloud-transferring-your-large-datasets Enough bandwidth to meet your project deadline for less than a few TB of data -> User gsutil Enough bandwidth to meet your project deadline for more than a few TB of data -> user Storage Transfer Service for on-premises data Not enough bandwidth to meet your project deadline -> user Transfer Appliance Since network bandwidth and cost implications are not mentioned, I would go for option A.
  23. cate0012 👍 2
    If they said that it was 1 PB I would probably say for sure Storage Transfer Appliance. For 75TB most businesses could do an online transfer. I think it would be silly to use gsutil in this situation when you could easily use the Storage Transfer Server (not the Appliance), but GSutil could probably work. The difference is that using GSutil it costs $0 and takes you two weeks. Storage Transfer Appliance costs you $3,000 and takes 2 months. The choice is clear in my mind.
  24. mailraj 👍 2
    I say the question should have more requirements. Would go with C based on below The expected turnaround time for a network appliance to be shipped, loaded with your data, shipped back, and rehydrated on Google Cloud is 50 days. If your online transfer timeframe is calculated to be substantially more than this timeframe, consider Transfer Appliance. The total cost for the 480 TB device process is less than $3,000
  25. rm_2495 👍 2
    Ans should be A. "Google recommends that enterprises use Transfer Appliance in cases where it would take them over a week to upload data to the cloud via the internet, or when an enterprise needs to migrate over 60 TB of data. "https://searchcloudcomputing.techtarget.com/definition/Google-Transfer-Appliance

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