PDE Ingesting and Processing the Data Practice Question
A data engineer needs to transfer 500 TB of archival data from an on-premises NAS to Cloud Storage. The on-premises network has limited bandwidth (100 Mbps). Which transfer method should they recommend?
⚠ Common exam trap
The exam often tests the misconception that any cloud-native tool (like Storage Transfer Service or gsutil) can handle large data volumes regardless of bandwidth, ignoring the physical reality of network transfer times for archival-scale data.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Transfer Appliance
The Transfer Appliance is a physical device designed for large-scale data transfers (up to petabytes) when network bandwidth is insufficient. With 500 TB of data and only 100 Mbps bandwidth, the theoretical transfer time would be over 500 days, making any online transfer method impractical. The Transfer Appliance bypasses network constraints entirely by shipping the data physically to Google Cloud.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Storage Transfer Service for on-premises
Why it's wrong here
Storage Transfer Service does not support on-premises sources directly; it requires internet-accessible endpoints.
- ✗
gsutil rsync
Why it's wrong here
gsutil rsync uses network transfer and would be extremely slow at 100 Mbps for 500 TB.
- ✓
Transfer Appliance
Why this is correct
Transfer Appliance is the best choice for large offline data transfer when network bandwidth is limited.
- ✗
Dataflow pipeline reading from NAS
Why it's wrong here
Dataflow is not designed for direct NAS ingestion; it would require custom connectors and network transfer.
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JA
Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This PDE practice question is part of Courseiva's free Google Cloud certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the PDE exam.