Egress fees may be getting a makeover, but your data’s freedom dance isn’t quite complete yet. While major cloud providers have “removed” these costly fees to ease vendor lock-in, largely due to regulatory nudges, the fine print means you’ll still face hurdles unless you’re moving all your data and terminating contracts. CIOs should not rely on fee removal alone; instead, they need a savvy strategy to manage partial migrations and multi-cloud architectures without unexpected charges.
Why You Should Care
First, egress fees—costs for moving data out of a cloud provider—have historically been a sticky trap, charging up to $0.20 per GB, quickly ballooning expenses for large-scale data shifts. The recent removal of these fees by giants like Google, Amazon, and Microsoft is driven by legislation (e.g., the European Data Act) aiming to foster competition and flexibility. However, this “removal” is conditional: you must often move all your data, terminate contracts, and file credit requests—steps that limit agility, especially for businesses adopting multi-cloud or hybrid strategies. Partial migrations still trigger fees, and credit approvals are not guaranteed. Cloud service provider (CSP) policies can change, and staying compliant requires vigilance—no “set and forget” here.
What You Should Do Next
- Audit your current CSPs’ egress fee policies and compliance status.
- Assess whether your migration plans qualify for fee waivers or will incur charges.
- Develop a migration and vendor-switching strategy mindful of these constraints, especially if using multi-cloud or hybrid environments.
Get Started
- Confirm your current CSP’s compliance with egress fee legislation and document the process for fee waivers.
- Calculate data volumes and identify if your migration plan meets the criteria for fee waivers before switching CSPs.
- Avoid frequent back-and-forth migrations relying on credit requests, this can burn time, money, and goodwill.
- Establish a regular review (at least annually) for egress fee policies to catch any changes early and adjust your cloud strategy accordingly.