Google announced that the company is immediately removing the fees charged to customers who wish to leave its cloud service to transfer to a rival service.
The move will pressure other cloud service providers like Microsoft and Amazon to follow Google's suit.
Google Cloud Offers Free Network Data Transfer
In a blog post, Google Cloud Head Amit Zavery explained that cloud services should be flexible to accommodate certain policy changes. The change in fees applies to all customers globally.
"Starting today, Google Cloud customers who wish to stop using Google Cloud and migrate their data to another cloud provider and/or on premises can take advantage of free network data transfer to migrate their data out of Google Cloud," he announced.
However, Zavery detailed that the elimination of data transfer fees does not provide the ultimate solution for customers. He cited that there are still issues of restrictive and unfair licensing practices that affect the consumers' choice to work with their preferred cloud service.
U.K. Antitrust Council Investigates Cloud Sevices, Bundled Products
The U.K. antitrust launched a probe that investigates cloud services and bundled products of companies like Microsoft and Google. According to Zavery, the decision was made due to the request from regulators and customers.
"We want to make sure our opinion, our point of view, is heard - as well as what we hear from customers," he added.
Currently, the U.K. antitrust is examining penalties and fees that could be done amid various cloud concerns. For instance, several customers have been complaining about Microsoft's cloud service which is pricier and makes running Microsoft programs in rival clouds difficult.
With its decision to waive data transfer fees, Google is now encouraging rival companies to do the same action.
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