Migrating to Z1 Storage from AWS S3, Backblaze or Wasabi: A Practical Guide

09 July 2026 Cloud Storage

Migrating from AWS S3, Backblaze or Wasabi to Z1 Storage with rclone

Moving terabytes between cloud providers sounds daunting — egress fees, long transfers, the fear of missing files. In practice, migrating S3-compatible data to Z1 Storage is a well-trodden path with good tooling, and we sweeten it considerably: new clients that reach 2TB or more within their first 2 months get a 2-month payment holiday, free uploads while you migrate, and hands-on help from our migrations team. Get in touch before you start and we'll plan it with you.

This guide shows the do-it-yourself route with rclone, which works from AWS S3, Backblaze B2, Wasabi, DigitalOcean Spaces or any S3-compatible source.

Before you start

  1. Inventory your source — how many buckets, how much data, how many objects? Your source provider's console or rclone size will tell you.
  2. Mind source egress fees. Downloading data out of AWS S3 or similar providers is usually billed per GB — that, not Z1, is the main cost of leaving. (Z1 charges nothing for your uploads.)
  3. Create your Z1 buckets in your client area — including an Object Lock-enabled bucket now if you want immutable backups later, since that choice is creation-time only.

Step 1: Configure both remotes in rclone

Install rclone (see our rclone guide) and run rclone config twice — once for your source (e.g. AWS S3), once for Z1 Storage:

# source example: AWS S3
name> aws
Storage> s3
provider> AWS
access_key_id> YOUR_AWS_KEY
secret_access_key> YOUR_AWS_SECRET
region> eu-west-1        # your source region

# destination: Z1 Storage
name> z1
Storage> s3
provider> Ceph
access_key_id> YOUR_Z1_ACCESS_KEY
secret_access_key> YOUR_Z1_SECRET_KEY
endpoint> s3.z1storage.com

Step 2: Trial run

Always start with a dry run of one folder:

rclone sync aws:mybucket z1:mybucket --dry-run --progress

Then copy a small subset for real and verify it:

rclone copy aws:mybucket/testfolder z1:mybucket/testfolder --progress
rclone check aws:mybucket/testfolder z1:mybucket/testfolder

Step 3: The main transfer

rclone sync aws:mybucket z1:mybucket --progress --transfers 16 --checkers 32
  • --transfers controls parallel file transfers — raise it on fast lines, lower it on constrained ones.
  • For very large objects, add --s3-chunk-size 64M to speed up multipart uploads.
  • The transfer is resumable: re-running the same command picks up where it left off, only moving what's missing or changed.
  • Running rclone on a server or VM close to your source (rather than your office connection) often multiplies throughput.

Step 4: Verify, cut over, decommission

  1. Verify: rclone check aws:mybucket z1:mybucket compares sizes and hashes across the board.
  2. Cut over: repoint your applications and backup jobs to s3.z1storage.com with your Z1 keys — for most tools that's a two-field change.
  3. Final delta sync: run the sync once more to catch anything written during the cutover.
  4. Decommission the source once you've run happily on Z1 for a comfortable period — and stop paying for it.

What it costs after you land

Flat R0.30/GB/month, uploads free, downloads and API calls included — no egress surprises, no retrieval tiers, and your data lives in South Africa under one privacy regime. Reach 2TB in your first 2 months and the payment holiday applies automatically — talk to our migrations team or sign up and start with 10GB free.

Tags:
Share