The goal of Google Cloud Storage Nearline is to provide organizations with a simple, low-cost, fast-response storage service with quick data backup, retrieval and access. Given the increased amount of data produced by users, it's no surprise that organizations are becoming “data hoarders" as they can no longer afford to throw data away. Indeed, it’s critical for organizations to conduct analysis against this data to gain market intelligence and stay competitive.

When we first introduced Google Cloud Storage Nearline, it was widely recognized as the storage solution that eliminates the concept of cold storage. But we didn't stop there. To further improve users’ experience, Cloud Storage Nearline and Cloud Storage Transfer Service are going into general availability today with a 99% uptime SLA, on-demand I/O, lifecycle management and a broadly expanded partner ecosystem. In addition, to help you get a headstart and reduce the costs of your migration to Google Cloud Storage Nearline we’ve created the switch and save program.

  1. We’re introducing on-demand I/O to allow you to increase I/O in situations where you need to retrieve data from a Google Cloud Storage Nearline bucket faster than the provisioned 4 MB/s read throughput per TB of data stored. On-demand I/O delivers improved throughput when you need it and you only get charged for what you use. You now can access your data in seconds, while relying on predictable data recovery .During the first three months after launch, on-demand I/O will be offered at no additional charge.
  1. In addition, Cloud Storage Transfer Service (previously referred to as Online Cloud Import) is becoming generally available to all organizations, allowing you to easily import large amounts of online data from HTTP/HTTPS locations, such as Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), into Google Cloud Storage to quickly and cost-effectively reduce your costs. You now will be able to configure one-time data migrations, as well as schedule recurring data transfers. Cloud Storage Transfer Service will also allow you to perform lifecycle management. Google Cloud Storage now offers you a way to simplify the lifecycle management of your objects, including automated archival to Cloud Storage Nearline and scheduled deletions.
  1. We are introducing our Switch and Save program with which you may receive 100PB of free storage in Cloud Storage Nearline for up to 6 months. As a new Google Cloud Platform customer, you will be able to switch from any other Cloud Service Provider or on-premises infrastructure and significantly reduce your storage costs. We’ve also created a TCO calculator to help you estimate your savings on Google Cloud Storage versus Amazon Web Services.
We know that changing your storage platforms and processes isn’t easy and only a strong partner ecosystem can make adopting Cloud Storage Nearline a seamless experience. This is why we have more than doubled the existing number of Cloud Storage Nearline partners since beta to help you take a new approach to data storage in your own environment. In addition to Veritas/Symantec, NetApp, Iron Mountain and Geminare, we have added 5 new partners:
Google Cloud Platform Premier Partners

Actifio lets you capture, manage, and use application data more quickly, efficiently, and simply than ever, across a whole range of business resiliency and agility use cases. Make enterprise data vaulting to Google Cloud Storage Nearline radically simple with Actifio's award-winning enterprise copy data virtualization platform.
Pixit Media connects users utilizing render resources hosted in Google Cloud to their on-premises storage without the need for specialized equipment at either end. In addition, existing Pixit Media PixStor users can use Google Cloud Storage for backup and archive of 'colder' data using Pixit's object plugins. Driven by PixStor policies that reduce backup and archive windows from days to minutes, data can be both protected and migrated in record time with minimal on-premise resources required.

Unitrends Free™ for Google Cloud Platform is free backup software that quickly deploys as a virtual appliance in VMware vSphere and Microsoft Hyper-V environments. Unitrends Free for Google Cloud Platform backs up your data locally and seamlessly integrates with Google Cloud Storage and Google Cloud Storage Nearline to create copies of your backups in the cloud.
Google Cloud Platform Partners

CloudBerry Backup is a cloud backup solution leveraging Google Cloud Storage Nearline. In addition to offering real-time and/or scheduled regular backups, encryption, local disk image, or bare metal restore, CloudBerry employs block level backup for maximum efficiency and provides alerting features to track each backup and restore plan remotely.
Filepicker helps over 60,000 applications integrate cloud drive sources with ease and simplicity.  Applications implementing Filepicker are now automatically integrated with Google Cloud Storage Nearline and enjoy the benefits of low cost and lifecycle management.
In addition to the partners we just listed, we have a growing ecosystem of global storage vendors that  have integrated with Google Cloud Storage and added support for Google Cloud Storage Nearline to enable users to optimize their disaster recovery and backup architectures.
Commvault’s Simpana platform provides simple, seamless and native support for Google Cloud Storage Nearline beginning with the release of Commvault Simpana version 10, service pack 11. Through Commvault’s single platform, customers can utilize Cloud Storage Nearline as a repository for data backup and archiving with full content awareness across all of the different storage platforms leveraged across an organization.
EMC NetWorker 8.2 with CloudBoost and EMC Avamar 7.1 with CloudBoost enable efficient and secure long-term retention of backup data using Google Cloud Storage Nearline, eliminating the need for tape and reducing capital expense.

EMC CloudArray makes cloud storage look, feel, and perform like local NAS or SAN storage, offering a cost-effective solution for organizations looking to keep inactive data accessible online. Both CloudBoost and CloudArray support all three tiers of Google Cloud Storage – Standard, DRA, and Nearline.
Egnyte enable customers to consolidate their file-sharing environments through secure access, centralized control and unified visibility integrating with Google Cloud Storage Nearline and Google Cloud Platform services. End users benefit from an optimized and unified user experience regardless of the application or device they choose.
Get Started
To try out Cloud Storage Nearline, visit our site and documentation. If you’re new to Google Cloud Platform, you should take advantage of our Switch and Save program to receive 100PB of free storage in Cloud Storage Nearline for up to 6 months. You can also visit our Google Cloud Storage Nearline partners’ page to discover our partners who integrated with our platform to extend its reach and functionality to help you get started faster.

- Posted by Avtandil Garakanidze, Product Manager