Amazon's AWS Scraps Exit Fees, Freeing Data Transfers to Rival Cloud Services

Amazon.com Inc’s AMZN cloud division, Amazon Web Services (AWS), has decided to eliminate the charges for customers wishing to migrate their data to competing services.

AWS Vice President Robert Kennedy announced this change in a blog post, stating that from now on, global customers can transfer their data out to the internet for free if they opt to switch to a different IT provider. This policy revision by AWS follows a similar announcement by Alphabet Inc GOOG GOOGL Google and comes amid growing regulatory scrutiny over cloud services, Bloomberg reports.

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Specifically, UK antitrust regulators have investigated the penalties associated with switching cloud providers, and the US Federal Trade Commission has sought public input on various cloud-related issues.

Amazon previously justified these fees as necessary to offset the costs associated with networking and infrastructure maintenance.

As the largest cloud computing service provider globally, AWS is part of a competitive market with significant players like Microsoft Corp MSFT and Google.

The competition has intensified, especially with the development of generative artificial intelligence technologies that require processing large data volumes.

All three companies incorporate this AI technology into their cloud services to attract more customers by enhancing their offerings.

In February, AWS shared plans to invest over $5 billion in Mexico over the next 15 years to boost local data handling and support growth. It also looks to invest $15.5 billion in Japan over five years between 2023 and 2027 to expand data centers.