CloudBerry: Shift Files Between Amazon S3, Windows Azure, Rackspace

CloudBerry Lab has sent a cloud storage migration tool into beta testing. CloudBerry Cloud Migrator is a service that aims to make it easy for customers to transfers files and data between cloud storage providers.

Transferring files from one cloud storage provider to another is not always the easiest of tasks, but CloudBerry hopes to make it easier for customers to shift files between Amazon S3, Windows Azure Blob Storage, Rackspace Cloud Files and FTP servers. Not exactly an exhaustive list of cloud storage providers, but CloudBerry has hit the big services, which is where it’s likely to find most of its customers.

Cloud Migrator is being offered as a service. Because it’s purely a web application, it gives end users the ability to transfer files between the different cloud storage services without the need to install any additional software. It executes all copy operations within a cloud.

Users will be able to copy files between different locations or accounts within a single cloud storage service or move them out to a different service.

For channel partners facing customer data migrations from one cloud service to another, this sounds like a good tool for making migration as easy as possible. At the same time, it also supports FTP for moving files from FTP to any of the three supported cloud storage services.

It’s a safe assumption that many customers and partners are already moving to or at least evaluating the new Amazon Glacier service. In that respect, Cloud Migrator isn’t going to be of any help — at least not yet. CloudBerry took note of the launch of the new Amazon archival storage service and said it plans to add Amazon Glacier to its list of supported cloud storage services in future versions of the service.

Will CloudBerry round out its supported services list with other cloud storage services, including the recently announced Nirvanix/TwinStrata cloud storage starter kit and Quantum’s Q-Cloud? We’ll have to wait and see.