Dive Brief:
- Microsoft quietly removed some egress fees for customers moving data out of Azure, the company said in an online update Wednesday.
- “Azure now offers free egress for customers leaving Azure when taking their data out of the Azure infrastructure via the internet to switch to another cloud provider or an on-premises data center,” the update said.
- Customers seeking to move more than 100 gigabytes of data per month, an amount Microsoft already allows customers to egress free of charge, can apply for credits by signaling their intent to cancel and delete their Azure subscription.
Dive Insight:
Microsoft's move to eliminate fees mirrors a similar action by Google Cloud, which got the ball rolling on hyperscaler egress charge waivers in January. AWS followed suit, paring back some of its data shifting fees earlier this month.
The scope of Microsoft's changes is limited to internet data transfers to on-prem or another cloud. As with Google Cloud’s policy, Azure waivers require customers to terminate the account, apply for credits and complete the move within 60 days.
“Azure Support will apply the credit when the data transfer process is complete and all Azure subscriptions associated to the account have been canceled,” the announcement said.
AWS, which also has a 60-day egress window, said it will not require customers to close their account or change their relationship with the provider. However, AWS stressed it would apply “additional scrutiny” to customers who apply multiple times for free data transfers.
All three policy pivots are linked to new European Union regulations.
The Google Cloud announcement coincided with the roll-out of the Data Act, a broad EU regulatory framework that went into effect on Jan. 11. The Act calls for cloud providers to abolish switching charges within three years. Microsoft and AWS referenced the framework in their announcements.
Egress fees are a red herring, Lydia Leong, Gartner distinguished VP analyst, told CIO Dive.
“Anyone who claims that it's egress fees that make it difficult have no understanding of what it actually takes to leave,” Leong said. “The cost of the move is trivial compared to the ongoing cost of storing data.”
Workforce training and ecosystem knowledge pose a far greater hurdle. Enterprises develop provider-specific skills to operate effectively in a particular cloud ecosystem, Leong said.
“Those skill sets are really what trap you in any given cloud,” said Leong. “You can’t just take those skills and move them elsewhere.”
In light of the skills trap, eliminating switching fees is a low-risk pivot for hyperscalers, Leong noted. “The amount of money it’s going to cost them is negligible,” she said. “The biggest expense for all of them is probably going to be processing the requests.”
