Priming the initial backup

Question

Will microsoft offer a service to prime the initial backup by accepting a couriered external disk containing the data? Specifically, my issue is that I have a number of branch sites with limited upload bandwidth, it would take weeks to complete an initial
backup. Alternatively, is there a way I could go about taking a copy of the vhdxs containing the data that needs to be pushed to azure backup, put them on an external disk, perform the initial upload from head office (over a much faster connection), and
then allow the branch office server to perform the subsequent incremental backups?
Cheers

Answer 1

Will microsoft offer a service to prime the initial backup by accepting a couriered external disk containing the data? Specifically, my issue is that I have a number of branch sites with limited upload bandwidth, it would take weeks to complete an initial
backup. Alternatively, is there a way I could go about taking a copy of the vhdxs containing the data that needs to be pushed to azure backup, put them on an external disk, perform the initial upload from head office (over a much faster connection), and
then allow the branch office server to perform the subsequent incremental backups?
Cheers
Seems yes on february 2015. Offline seeding – complete your initial seeding faster and off-the-network
New features in Azure Backup – Long term retention, offline backup seeding and more
http://azure.microsoft.com/blog/2015/02/16/new-features-in-azure-backup-long-term-retention-offline-backup-seeding-and-more/
Offline seeding – complete your initial seeding faster and off-the-network.
Azure Backup enables customers to complete the initial backup by integrating with the
Azure Import/Export service. Rather than sending the initial backup copy over a congested network, customers can ship the disk containing the initial backup copy to the nearest Azure datacenter.