The bill for leaving the cloud is part of the lock-in.

In March 2026, the UK Competition and Markets Authority said its cloud-services investigation had identified limits on customer choice caused by data-egress fees and interoperability barriers. It said Amazon and Microsoft had set out actions to reduce the expense and effort for UK customers using more than one cloud provider, subject to ongoing CMA review.

The CMA also said further steps were needed to help customers switch and multi-home. That language matters because a cloud service is rarely a single file store. It can become the place where data, identity, backups, applications and AI workloads accumulate. The technical ability to copy data is not the same as the practical ability to leave.

The export button is not the whole exit

Egress fees charge a customer when data leaves a provider’s network. Interoperability barriers can add incompatible formats, management tools, licensing conditions or operational work to the move. Each cost may be explainable in isolation; together they reward staying put long after a better or cheaper option exists.

Before adopting a cloud service, ask what it costs to export data, how long a full exit takes and whether backups can be read elsewhere. Test a small migration before the system becomes business-critical. A procurement checklist should price the way out as carefully as the way in.