The hidden costs of multi-cloud: Cloud egress charges explained

Once you have moved to a hybrid or multi-cloud strategy, data transfers between the different clouds are also likely to increase. For enterprises that move large amounts of data or use cloud resources for data-intensive applications, these costs can add up quickly.

Ingress vs. egress fees

In general, cloud providers offer free data ingress as the costs they incur in bringing data into the cloud is wrapped up in subscription or other fees. Egress charges however are designed to discourage organizations from transferring data out and given that they are not fixed, and even though the costs are usually not very high, they can come as a surprise.

Cloud egress costs refer to the fees charged by cloud service providers for data that is transferred out of their cloud environment to another location. This can be to a different cloud provider, an on-premise data center, applications, or end users. Egress costs are often based on the volume of data transferred, the destination region or location, as well as the technology you use to transfer the data.

Optimize data transfers

To minimize egress costs, it is important to carefully consider the different pricing schemes of the cloud service providers as well as the location of your cloud resources and the geography of your users and applications.

The connectivity option you choose for egress traffic can impact both the costs as well as performance of your cloud infrastructure. For example, if you opt for transferring data over an Internet connection, you may experience slower performance due to potential network congestion and variability in routing paths, as well as incurring higher data transfer fees.

On the other hand, if you use a dedicated or private connection, you can benefit from faster and more consistent performance, lower data transfer fees, and improved security.

Use a cloud routing service

Cloud routing services like DE-CIX’s Cloud ROUTER can reduce egress costs by using private connectivity to move data between cloud service providers or on-premise infrastructure. For example, you can directly route data between two clouds without bringing it to your on-premise systems, reducing unnecessary transport costs as well as the egress costs.

As a rule of thumb: The more data is transferred, the higher the potential for cost savings. With continuously increasing data volumes, private connectivity options such as the DE-CIX Cloud ROUTER provide a sustainable and cost-effective solution for multi- and hybrid cloud scenarios.  

It is important to monitor and analyze your data transfer patterns and costs regularly to identify areas of potential optimization and cost savings. Many cloud service providers offer tools to help you monitor your usage and costs.