Google Cloud raises pricing across storage and data products

Prices on some products will rise but the cloud giant claims the changes could lead to customers saving money in certain areas

Public cloud giant Google Cloud has announced a host of pricing changes which the vendor claims will allow more flexibility for customers - with new low-cost options for some products but price increases for others.

Google has highlighted the main changes will come to its cloud storage pricing for data mobility, including replication of data written to a dual- or multi-region storage bucket, and inter-region data access.

It will also include the introduction of a new lower-cost archive snapshot option for Persistent Disk (PD), new outbound data processing pricing for cloud load balancing and new pricing for network topology.

The pricing changes are due to come into effect on 1 October this year.

"We are announcing we will adjust our infrastructure product and pricing structure to give customers more choice in how they pay for what they use alongside new, flexible SKUs with new product options and capabilities," Google Cloud said in an announcement.

"These changes are designed to help ensure better product fit for our customers' use cases across a wider array of workloads.

"They are also designed to better align with how other leading cloud providers charge for similar products, so customers can more easily compare services between leading cloud providers.

"Some of these changes will provide new, lower-cost options and features for Google Cloud products. Other changes will raise prices on certain products.

"Ultimately, our goal is to provide more flexible pricing models and options for how customers are using our cloud services."

The vendor added that the impact of the pricing changes will depend on customers' individual use cases, but admits that "some customers may see an increase in their bills".

Though Google also claims that the new options for some services will "better align with usage, which could lower some customers' bills".

Customers have been sent a six-month notice for the changes, while those under existing commit contracts with a floating or fixed discount will not face any changes until renewal.

But the announcement has already been met with criticism by some. Mark Boost, CEO of Kubernetes cloud service provider Civo, criticised the decision to introduce "unexpected costs".

"Google Cloud's pricing change is symbolic of the direction of travel from the big cloud providers: prioritising profit over customers interests," he said.

"A huge factor behind the recent financial success of these hyperscalers is the opaque billing they have continuously employed, with customers regularly facing unexpected line items for routine tasks like data transfer.

"Our own research found that more than one third of public cloud users have been stung by unexpected cloud costs in the last 12 months. Such unexpected costs could be damaging for any business, but it is a particular threat to start-ups operating on fine margins."