ANZ cloud users pay highest fees as sustainability outranks cost

The 2025 Global Cloud Storage Index from Wasabi Technologies has highlighted ongoing budget overruns and changing business priorities among organisations in Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) as cloud storage fees continue to frustrate IT decision-makers.

The report, based on a survey of 250 businesses across ANZ, found that 66% of respondents exceeded their cloud storage budgets during the last financial year. This figure is the highest globally and notably above the global average of 62%.

Unpredictable costs, especially those related to data access and retrieval, were identified as a key driver of these overruns. Approximately 42% of respondents indicated data access and retrieval fees contributed the most to the cloud storage charges they faced, among the highest such rates worldwide.

Budget pressure

Beyond overspending, more than half of the surveyed ANZ organisations reported experiencing IT or business delays attributable to egress or data access fees. Pricing has become the number one cause of dissatisfaction with cloud storage providers in the region, underlining the negative impact of unexpected fees.

"In my experience, ANZ businesses are fed up with unpredictable cloud storage costs fuelled by hidden egress fees and this report reflects that. The fact that 92% are migrating data, or plan to migrate data out of public cloud while incurring fees in the process, says it all. Organisations want cloud storage that's cost-effective, secure, and doesn't punish them for accessing their own data. Simultaneously, sustainability is now the top priority in ANZ – businesses aren't just looking for cost effective storage that performs, they want storage that aligns with their company values around sustainability. Security is also a key factor in developing a data resiliency strategy that ensures an immutable copy of data is stored in a safe, off site, secure vault to circumvent ransomware attacks and mitigate risk. The cloud market is shifting, and businesses are demanding better in 2025."

Across Asia Pacific (APAC), including Australia, New Zealand, and Japan, the report shows that 63% of organisations exceeded their cloud storage budgets in 2024, slightly above the global average. Nearly half (49%) of end-user cloud storage spending in the region now goes to fees for storage and networking rather than the storage used.

Fees and business impact

Networking fees, data management fees, and charges tied to data access or egress are cited as major contributors to rising costs. These unpredictable expenses are resulting in IT and business delays for 50% of APAC organisations, according to the survey findings.

Andrew Smith, Senior Manager of Strategy and Market Intelligence at Wasabi Technologies and a former IDC analyst, commented:

"Cloud storage in APAC is at a critical inflection point with 63% of organisations exceeding their budgets and nearly half of all spending going toward fees rather than storage. As organisations rethink their cloud strategies, it's clear that reducing fees, improving performance, and ensuring stronger security measures are key priorities for IT decision-makers across the region as they face mounting financial pressures, along with the need to support emerging workloads like GenAI."

Sustainability and security

The report finds that, for the first time, sustainability has become the main consideration for ANZ organisations when selecting a cloud storage provider. This marks a shift towards environmentally focused IT policies. However, budgetary pressures and dissatisfaction with pricing persist, as 66% of ANZ respondents say they overspent on planned cloud storage spending and regularly recover data from public cloud storage for backup purposes - a process that can further increase operational costs.

Despite assumptions about infrequent access, the survey showed all ANZ organisations retrieve archived data at least annually, with 64% doing so weekly. This frequent access to so-called "cold" storage is linked to increased operational costs and exposes inefficiencies in current tiered storage models. Indeed, 17% of ANZ businesses reported negative impacts resulting from cold storage performance or access delays.

Security considerations

Although security remains a concern, fewer than half (48%) of ANZ organisations currently employ object lock - a security feature that can help mitigate ransomware risks by preventing data tampering. However, a further 48% indicated plans to implement object lock within the next year, signalling an increasing awareness of data protection as a priority.

In Japan, 63% of organisations also reported exceeding their cloud storage budgets, and 65% stated that egress or other data access fees have delayed their IT or business initiatives. Pricing remains the key influence on dissatisfaction among Japanese respondents, who increasingly favour storage vendors offering strong data protection capabilities. Despite these challenges, usage of public cloud storage in Japan has provided some data security benefits, such as easier prevention and mitigation of unplanned data loss.

The research underpinning the 2025 Global Cloud Storage Index was conducted by independent agency Vanson Bourne and involved 1,600 IT decision-makers globally. The data illustrates significant ongoing concern around fee structures and increasing demand for more cost-predictable, secure, and sustainable storage solutions among organizations in ANZ and wider APAC.