Controlled transfer of data over an elastic network is provided and includes analyzing properties of a set of data for transfer from a source storage location to a target storage location across an elastic cloud computing network as part of a staged transfer of the set of data, assigning transfer queue weightings to data subsets of the set of data based on weighting parameters, the transfer queue weightings dictating order of transfer of the data subsets from the source storage location to the target storage location, and controlling transfer of the data subsets from the source storage location to the target storage location consistent with the transfer queue weightings assigned to the data subsets, the controlling transfer including controlling, based on costs to transfer the data subsets, bandwidth allocation of the elastic cloud computing network and a transfer schedule for the data subsets.