Companies spend huge amounts of cloud storage money on fees
New research from Wasabi Technologies has shown that nine in ten (92%) companies allocate more than half of their cloud storage budgets to fees, rather than actual storage capacity.
The news comes as most organizations (91%) expect to increase their budgets by 2024, despite more than half (53%) already exceeding their budgets by 2023. This not only indicates the enormous potential for the cloud industry, but also the rising costs.
The report, based on a survey of more than 1,200 IT and storage decision makers, quantifies the growing reliance on public cloud storage solutions.
Cloud costs are just as expensive as actual storage
“European cloud storage users continue to struggle with storage costs, yet the region continues to demonstrate a healthy preference for cloud-first decision-making when it comes to the adoption of IT services,” said Andrew Smith, senior manager of strategy and market intelligence. at Wasabi.
The report also mentioned the high entry and exit fees imposed by many of the hyperscalers, which have been a hot topic in recent months. In the past few weeks alone, Google Cloud and AWS have introduced measures to make switching providers free (or, in some circumstances, cheaper).
The index shows that 50% of EMEA cloud costs go to fees, which is several percentage points higher than the global average. However, it appears that more European companies are adopting cloud-first compared to the global average, with Germany leading the way.
With costs soaring, companies have revealed some of the key factors that determine their cloud provider, including third-party integrations, security and compliance features, and sustainability.
Jon Howes, VP & GM for EMEA at Wasabi, summarized: “Progress toward remote cloud storage solutions is a direction almost all enterprises are taking.”
He added: “The ever-growing frustration over unnecessary costs and supplier lock-in, as highlighted by the UK market watchdog’s research, poses a navigational challenge for cloud-first organizations in EMEA.”