🌐 Exciting News in the Cloudscape! 🚀 Google Cloud Platform (GCP) has just made a groundbreaking announcement that's sending ripples through the cloud computing world. Drumroll, please! 🥁 They are eliminating egress charges, a move that's set to revolutionize the way organizations view cloud services! Exciting, right? Well, there is more to this than what you just skim in the articles.
Why is this significant? Google Cloud's decision to waive egress charges is a game-changer. Egress fees have long been a concern for businesses managing data transfer costs when one want to repatriate a workload back on-prem. With this move, Google is not just leveling the playing field; they're reshaping it entirely. The significance lies in empowering businesses to leverage cloud resources without the financial burden of data transfer.
Technical Insights: 🤓 Google Cloud's move is rooted in their commitment to fostering a more open and accessible cloud environment. The removal of egress charges is particularly significant when an organization is transitioning its data out of GCP, but only in scenarios where they are concluding their relationship with Google. This strategic decision is aligned with Google's dedication to transparency and flexibility in cloud services. Businesses now have the advantage of cost-effectively transferring their data when considering a move to another cloud provider or an on-premises data center. This move empowers organizations with greater control over their data and associated costs during transitions.
What does this mean for the future of public cloud? 🚀 Google has always been a distant third among the "big three" public clouds. It's a game of choices, and Google Cloud just sweetened the deal. Organizations (Especially small and mid-market companies) weighing options between AWS, GCP, or Azure now have a compelling reason to consider the cost advantage of GCP. Google's commitment to affordability and innovation positions them as a formidable player in the cloud services arena. In the least, organizations that still have not started refactoring or migrating workloads to a public cloud can test the waters with GCP knowing that repatriation of those workloads won't come with a large burdensome cost. At best, Google can lure new production workloads for organizations that can now have peace of mind they are not truly handcuffed by a public cloud with the cost of egress should they want to look at repatriating back on-prem or at another public cloud vendor.
The Caveats: 💻 To take advantage of this zero cost to transfer data out of GCP, customers have to submit a form to GCP support. Support will then approve or deny the request. (As of this writing, there is no criteria listed as to what will constitute as an approval or denial). Once the request is approved, customers will have 60 days to accomplish migrating all of the data out and once its all removed the organization "must terminate your Google Cloud agreement according the terms". (According the FAQ section). The services covered as of this dare are: BigQuery, Cloud Bigtable, Cloud SQL, Cloud Storage, Datastore, Filestore, Persistent Disk., and Spanner.
Competitive Edge: 🌐 AWS and Azure have been put on notice. While this announcement from Google is significant for what I believe is the small and mid-market organizations, (lets say 2,000 employees and under), it still doesn't necessarily force AWS and Google to follow suit, especially because there are some technical questions Google should answer first like "what is the criteria for an approval or denial", or the law of physics of networking and dozens of petabytes of data not being able to be migrated out within 60 days. But it could be that this is a starting point of a new road for changing more policies of who truly owns the customers data based on where it physically resides.
🔮 The cloud landscape is evolving, and Google Cloud's decision to eliminate egress charges is, no doubt a testament to their dedication to customer success. As organizations navigate the complexities of cloud service providers, this move positions GCP as a strong candidate to take a look at if you're a small or mid-size organization offering for not just cutting-edge technology but also a cost-effective and customer-friendly approach. Buckle up for a pivot in your cloud journey where data flows freely, and the future looks more promising than ever!