> but if you have a lot of files, especially smaller files, the tar path with ssh is way faster than scp. Try copying a git repository (~2-3MB) from one site to another site. My experiences is that tar+ssh beats scp significantly.
Only because you open a new ssh connection per file by default and tar+ssh opens only one. Which causes lots of overhead. If you reuse your ssh connection scp will be fast as well: http://www.debian-administration.org/articles/290