Google announced today that it has eliminated Google Cloud egress fees for consumers who need to migrate to a cloud provider.
“Starting today, Google Cloud customers who wish to stop using Google Cloud and migrate their data to another cloud provider and/or on premises, can take advantage of free network data transfer to migrate their data out of Google Cloud,” Google vice president Amit Zavery writes in the announcement post. “This applies to all customers globally.”
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The impact of this announcement is straightforward enough, but Google also criticizes Microsoft for a related cost that prevents cross-cloud provider migrations in the first place: Its restrictive and unfair licensing practices.
“Some existing vendors are taking advantage of their on-premises software monopolies to create monopolies in the cloud, employing restrictive licensing practices that trap consumers and distort competition,” Zavery adds, obviously referring to Microsoft. “The complex Internet of licensing restrictions means choosing who consumers can work with and how, charging five times the fee if consumers use certain competing clouds, and restricting the interoperability of critical software with competing cloud infrastructure. These and other restrictions have no technical basis and can impose 300% construction. Prices are rising for consumers. On the other hand, the cost to consumers for migrating their knowledge from a cloud provider is minimal.
In Google’s view, customers should pick a cloud provider based on their needs, and not be restricted from using their best choice because of unfair licensing practices. And they certainly have the ear of regulators: The EU is currently investigating Microsoft for this very issue.
You can learn more about Google’s new knowledge transfer policies on the Google Cloud website.
Paul Thurrott is an award-winning technology journalist and blogger with more than 25 years of industry experience and 30 books. He owns Thurrott. com and hosts third-generation podcasts: Windows Weekly with Leo Laporte and Richard Campbell, Hands-On Windows, and First Ring Daily with Brad Sams. He was previously a senior technology analyst at Windows IT Pro and author of the SuperSite for Windows. You can reach Paul via email, Twitter, or Mastodon.
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