Google Cloud waived its network data transfer fees in a move to support an open, interoperable ecosystem and rise above legacy cloud providers like Amazon Web Services (AWS) that use “restrictive licensing practices” to “lock in customers and warp competition,” Google Cloud VP/GM and Head of Platform Amit Zavery wrote in a blog detailing the decision.

Customers looking to migrate data out of Google Cloud to another cloud provider or an on-premises environment can now transfer network data free of charge. But that doesn’t mean restrictive and unfair licensing practices at other hyperscalers are going away.

Zavery called out “certain legacy providers” for banking on “on-premises software monopolies” to build broader cloud monopolies based on restrictive licensing agreements. The “complex web” of restrictions prevents users from choosing the cloud provider that fits for their business by locking them in with contracting terms and licensing practices, according to the Google exec.

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From limiting what vendors customers can work with and increasing prices by five-fold if customers use competing clouds, to limiting interoperability of necessary software with competing cloud infrastructure and treating the multicloud operating model as taboo, customers are experiencing nearly 300% cost increases as a result of anticompetitive practices.

Google Cloud’s decision may seem surprising at first glance, but considering the hyperscalers are battling anticompetitive pricing accusations and the cloud provider has yet to fulfill its 2023 promise of reaching No. 2 market position, the move seems less out-of-the-blue.

“Google has always been the most friendly [and] accommodating to other environments, public cloud, on premises or otherwise,” Forrester analyst Tracy Woo told SDxCentral. “I doubt this will cause the other hypers, AWS and Azure, to also dismiss their egress fees for moving off of their cloud.”

In a recent examination of the UK’s cloud infrastructure market, communications regulator Ofcom similarly determined that impressive profit margins for AWS and Microsoft show “there are limits to the overall level of competition,” according to the regulator.

The investigation found AWS and Microsoft to be the two major players with a combined market share of 70%-80%. Google was the closest runner up, trailing behind with 5%-10% of the market.

Ofcom found egress fees, or charges paid by customers to move their data out of the cloud, are significantly higher than at smaller cloud providers. These high costs can discourage hyperscale customers from adopting a multicloud model and ultimately work to prevent customers from switching to a different cloud provider altogether.

In addition, hyperscale customers tend to experience technical barriers to both interoperability and portability. That means customers must reconfigure their applications and data for compatibility with different cloud environments. “This makes it more difficult to combine different services across cloud providers or to change provider,” regulators said.

To that point, Google Cloud’s efforts to eliminate egress fees support the idea that as business needs evolve, “the cloud should be flexible enough to accommodate those changes,” Zavery said.

Google Cloud’s decision to make data transfer free was driven by customer concerns about legacy providers’ licensing restrictions, and the cloud hyperscaler will continue “to advocate on behalf of our cloud customers,” Zavery said. “Much more must be done to end the restrictive licensing practices that are the true barrier to customer choice and competition in the cloud market.”