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AWS followed Google in scrapping egress fees for customers who exit its platform
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To get bill credits, exiting customers have to contact its support team
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It’s not clear if Microsoft will also cave to pressure to slash egress fees in light of regulatory pressure
Another domino has fallen. Less than two months after Google Cloud decided to scrap most egress fees for customers who leave its platform, Amazon Web Services (AWS) did the same.
When Google Cloud made its move, an AWS representative told Silverlinings 90% of its customers paid nothing for data transfers out of the platform since it already provided 100 GB of free egress. However, the company said this week that those who are transferring out of AWS and need more than 100 GB of data transfer can contact its support organization to ask for credits to make the move free. Credits are available to all AWS customers around the globe with accounts in good standing.
“It’s necessary to go through support because you make hundreds of millions of data transfers each day, and we generally do not know if the data transferred out to the internet is a normal part of your business or a one-time transfer as part of a switch to another cloud provider or on premises,” the company wrote.
Customers who receive the credits have 60 days to complete their transfer out of AWS.
As Gartner VP Sid Nag previously noted, the 60-day timeline presents a challenge for companies looking to exit. Switching cloud providers, he said in January, is neither a quick nor easy process.
Microsoft hasn’t given any indication whether it plans to follow in Google's and now AWS’ footsteps. But it could do, as pressure from regulators over cloud competition concerns increases both at home and abroad.
For its part, Oracle noted that it offers 10 TB of free data transfer per month to its customers. That means the vast majority of customers pay nothing when they move, the company told us in January.