Unlimited free public cloud egress

Update: this article was written in March 2024. The EU Data Act has applied since 12 September 2025, so the switching rights described below are now in force, and other providers have also removed egress fees for customers who leave.

Yes, you read that right - both Amazon Web Services (“AWS”) and Google Cloud Platform (“GCP”) now offer unlimited free cloud egress to move your data to on-premise or an alternative Cloud Service Provider (“CSP”). When I heard about this, I initially thought it was to enable the next generation of multi-cloud system architecture. However, upon further investigation I discovered that my first interpretation was clearly far too optimistic. What is missing from this hyperbolic title is that it is not to enable continuous data interoperability between public CSPs, but to enable you to leave their cloud platform entirely free from egress fees when you intend to leave the service, no matter how much data you have.

To catch a few readers up, public CSPs provide free internet access to their services and to upload to their platform but charge for the internet usage for downloads by the GB, commonly referred to as ‘egress fees’. While the CSPs do need to pay for the internet connectivity provided somehow, for a long time users have seen egress fees as a form of vendor lock-in. To some extent, perhaps this is at least partially true as the cost of egressing all of your data may not be cost effective (until now) and therefore prohibitive to moving to another platform.

So why the sudden change of heart? I’ve read some incredibly altruistic sounding press releases from both Google and Amazon on this. They seem to suggest that they fundamentally “believe” their customers have a right to do what they wish for their data, even if that means moving to a competitor. While it’s not my full vision and hope for continuous interoperability, this still sounded far too good to be true and also doesn’t explain their timing. As such, the sceptic in me dug a little deeper to understand the true motivation behind this shift. It seems as though Google was the first of the major public CSPs to offer this in January 2024. We have seen before that when these major providers make a significant decision like this it sets a standard for the entire industry to follow. Perhaps this is why Amazon have followed suit; on March 5th 2024, Amazon announced that they would also offer unlimited free egress to enable you to move all of your data out of Amazon to go on-premise or even to another competitor platform. Peeling back the marketing layer of this onion the story leads us to the new EU Data Act.

The EU Data Act (the “Act”)

The EU Data Act (the “Act”) came into force on January 11th 2024 (a proposal for the Act was published as far back as 23rd of February 2022). It is a large act covering multiple areas of data, including protection, sharing and access. This article will focus on one area (chapter 6): the ‘right to switch services’.

Going back even further, we can see that this was influenced by The Free Flow of Non-Personal Data Regulation (the “Regulation”) which similarly gave non-professional consumers a right to switch services and withdraw their data. This new Act has built upon this to extend the rights to businesses too. It is clear that their intention with the previous Regulation was to encourage a self-regulatory approach from the CSPs, although unfortunately to little effect. The Act is intended to mandate a regulatory approach to force these companies to follow the intention behind the original Regulation.

“With regard to cloud services, as the self-regulatory approach seems not to have affected market dynamics significantly, this proposal presents a regulatory approach to the problem highlighted in the Free Flow of Non-Personal Data Regulation.”

- EU Data Act 2024

While the EU can only technically mandate for its member states, their decisions clearly have a big sway on the international markets and major vendors. Now we have pulled back the onion layers far enough, I think I can definitively conclude that it is this Act that is driving this seismic shift in the CSP’s attitude towards exiting their platforms.

How to get the free egress?

I’ve not tried to do it myself yet, as I have every intention of staying within these great platforms. AWS claims it’s as simple as raising a ticket specifying the amount of data you wish to withdraw from their platform. I can only assume that this is so they can review to confirm it is a genuine migration before granting credits to cover the full costs of leaving their platform rather than you just being cheeky and trying to avoid some of their internet usage fees.

Note that while the major CSPs may not provide free egress as standard, there are other storage vendors and Managed Service Providers (like Base Media Cloud ) who do.

Conclusion

In summary, this means that if you did want to move to an alternative CSP or back on-premise, it is now possible with AWS and GCP for free (at least in terms of egress fees). This may be great for cost savings, but it is also comforting to know that if you do choose to migrate to the cloud, you are free to leave if and when it stops working for your business. I think it’s only a matter of time before Microsoft follow suit and offers similar free egress from there Azure cloud platform in the coming months.

Unlimited free public cloud egress

The EU Data Act (the “Act”)

How to get the free egress?

Conclusion

Further Reading

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