In a move analysts didn't see coming, peer pressure from Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Google Cloud seems to have paid off – Microsoft today shared it’s following its rivals’ footsteps and eliminating fees associated with transferring data out of the Microsoft Azure cloud to the internet.

“We support customer choice, including the choice to migrate your data away from Azure,” Microsoft wrote in an update. The only type of egress charges eligible for this waiver, however, are those associated with moving Azure Storage data out of Microsoft’s public cloud to the internet and then to another public cloud or on-premises data center.

Driven by the European Data Act and the recent waivers from AWS and Google Cloud, Microsoft now offers credits for 100GB of data transfer for 60 days in all Azure public cloud regions.

IT teams are required to give Microsoft advance notice of their intention to move data out of Azure. After the request is approved, the departing customer pays the fee and is required to cancel all Azure subscriptions connected to the account. Once the data is gone, customers can request an invoice-level credit for the storage data egress fees incurred.

Typical charges will still apply for transferring data out of specialized Azure services like Express Route, Express Route Direct, VPN, Azure Front Door and Azure Content Delivery Network.

For Azure users who purchased services through a partner, that partner is responsible for requesting credits, transferring data, canceling other subscriptions and crediting the user.

If Microsoft determines the customer’s request hasn’t followed each part of the documented process, it can refrain from issuing credits. This policy is subject to changes, according to the hyperscaler.

Google Cloud was the first hyperscaler to eliminate network data transfer fees in a move to support an open, interoperable ecosystem and rise above rivals like 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 January decision.

Two months later, AWS responded with a similar waiver for fees associated with data transfer out to the internet, which left Microsoft the odd one out, until now.

The simplified cloud migration capabilities that come from these recent efforts are necessary for cloud resilience, and this industry-wide effort to address some anticompetitive practices is paving the way for a multicloud-by-default world, Cockroach Labs CEO Spencer Kimball told SDxCentral.

Cockroach Labs testing found the hidden costs of transfer fees are significant, but more important are the technical challenges of integration and a lack of cloud-agnostic tools – barriers that still remain.

Following the announcement, Google Cloud's Zavery also highlighted the work still yet to be done at Azure. “To really support customer choice, it's time to address the greatest barrier: Microsoft's restrictive and predatory licensing that force[s] customers into Azure,” he wrote on X.