Google is all set to eliminate data migration fees to transfer it to another cloud or on-premise data centre
Google announced that it’ll stop charging Google Cloud customers a fee to migrate their data to another cloud provider or on-premise data centre, effective immediately. Customers using Google Cloud services including BigQuery, Cloud Bigtable, Cloud SQL, Cloud Storage, Datastore, Filestore, Spanner and Persistent Disk are eligible for free transfers out of Google Cloud, but must first apply for approval through a form. They’ll have 60 days to transfer their data upon approval; if the time frame elapses, they’ll have to submit a second request.
Google said in a support article, “The company makes clear that it reserves the right to audit data movement away from Google Cloud for compliance with program terms and conditions.”
Amit Zavery, GM/VP, head of platform at Google Cloud, wrote in a blog post, “The complex web of licensing restrictions includes picking and choosing who their customers can work with and how charging 5x the cost if customers decide to use specific competitors’ clouds, and limiting interoperability of must-have software with competitors’ cloud infrastructure. These and other restrictions have no technical basis and may impose a 300% cost increase to customers. In contrast, the cost for customers to migrate data from a cloud provider is minimal.
