Reviled Cloud Fees Come Under Attack

To some companies, renting storage space or other services from a cloud provider can feel like they’ve entered a roach motel: It’s easy to get in but hard to leave. Google on Thursday took a baby step toward changing that perception by eliminating fees it charges cloud customers that want to switch entirely to a rival cloud service or to their own data centers.

Google will still charge customers who simply want to move some data back and forth between its cloud and their own servers or rival clouds, limiting the impact of the move. But even taking this small step signals the possible beginning of the end for the widely criticized fees on data transfers, which Amazon Web Services and Microsoft charge as well.