Choosing a method for transferring data depends on some important factors that must be considered. These factors help you decide which method would be more suitable for the data you want to transfer from on-premises to Azure. The factors you must consider for data transfer include  Data size  Network bandwidth  Data transfer frequency (periodic or one-time transfer)  You can transfer data from on-premises to Azure in two ways:  Offline transfer via devices  Offline data transfer is best suited when you want to transfer a large amount of data in one go. For offline data transfer, you can use large discs or other storage devices supplied by Microsoft Azure or send your own discs to Azure. Some of the devices that you can use for transferring data include Azure data box heavy, Azure data box,  and Azure Import/Export.  Data transfer over a network  Data can also be transferred from on-premises to Azure over a network using the following methods:   Graphical interface: This data transfer method is suitable when you have a few files to transfer without using automation. You can use graphical interface tools such as Azure Storage Explorer to transfer data from on-premises to the Azure cloud.  Programmatic or scripted transfer: Scripted data transfer involves using software tools provided by Azure to transfer data from on-premise to Azure. Some software tools for programmatic transfer are Azure PowerShell, AzCopy, and Azure CLI. You can use SDKs for PHP, Ruby, Python, Java, and Node/JS to transfer data programmatically.  On-premises devices: Physical or virtual devices supplied by Azure can be used for data transfer. These devices will be at your data center and help in fast data transfer over a network connection. Azure's physical device for data transfer is Azure Stack Edge. Azure Data Box Gateway is a virtual device that helps in fast data transfer.  Managed Data pipelines:  Managed data pipelines can help you transfer data over a network connection frequently from your data center to Azure. These data pipelines can be set up and managed using Azure Data Factory.