After an initial euphoric rush to the cloud, administrators are questioning the value and promise of the tech giants’ services.

According to a report published by UK cloud outfit Civo, more than a third of organizations surveyed reckoned that their move to the cloud had failed to live up to promises of cost-effectiveness. Over half reported a rise in their cloud bill.

Although the survey, unsurprisingly, paints Civo in a flattering light, some of its figures may make uncomfortable reading for customers sold on the promises from hyperscalers. Like-for-like comparisons for a simple three-node cluster with 200 GB of persistent storage and a 5 TB data transfer showed prices going from $1,278.58 in 2022 to $1,458.68 in 2024 on Microsoft Azure.

For Google, the price went from $1,107.61 to $1,250.35. According to Civo’s figures, the cost at AWS increased from $1,142.46 to $1,234.59.

“The Kubernetes prices were taken from the hyperscalers’ very own pricing calculators,” a Civo spokesperson said.

In the IT world, there is an expectation that bang for buck increases as time goes by, but in this example, prices are rising faster than the rate of inflation, and what customers receive for their money remains unchanged.

John David-Lovelock, VP analyst at Gartner, said CIOs had been conditioned not to expect price increases since the cloud emerged.

“Cost control, based on operating datacenters at massive scale, was part of the early sales pitch and in the intervening 15 years, it had proven out – cloud product costs were stable, and either went down in price or more features were added at the same price”.

“However, the rapid rise in the cost of electricity post-pandemic, coupled with the rising cost of skilled IT staff, put cloud delivery under new cost pressures that had to be passed on, from hyperscalers to platform provider, from platform provider to software provider, and finally from software providers to clients.

“While there are cost pressures behind these increases being felt across the cloud spectrum, opportunistic price increases cannot be ruled out.”

Microsoft and Google decided not to officially comment on the survey’s findings. However, a representative for one of the hyperscalers retorted that the figures seemed cherry-picked and pointed out that, as an example, customers using reserved instances could realize significant savings.

In response to the suggestion that the figures had been “cherry-picked,” a Civo spokesperson said: “The configuration we used – a three-node cluster with 200 GB Persistent Volume and 5 TB data transfer – is one we’ve found to be commonly selected by our diverse customer base. While we understand that no single setup can represent every use case perfectly, we believe this configuration offers a helpful reference point for many potential customers.”

An AWS spokesperson said in a statement: “IT providers often tout their pricing in direct comparison to AWS, which encourages further price competition. AWS has reduced prices 134 times since AWS launched in 2006.

“These price reductions have occurred even as AWS has continuously improved reliability, availability, security, and performance. In addition, AWS offers management tools that make it easier for customers to monitor and optimize their cloud costs.”

Despite such protestations, analysts have long predicted an increase in public cloud prices. In 2022, Canalys warned that prices could jump by a third, and several companies have begun to question the cost of operating services in the cloud compared to running on-premises.

But is a retreat from the cloud likely? David-Lovelock thinks not: “CIOs cannot turn their back on cloud.”

The giddy enthusiasm might have waned in favor of some hard-nosed ROI calculations, and some workloads might jump away from cloud vendors, “but this will not constitute a change in direction – just a ripple in the stream of dollars flowing to the cloud.”

So, are prices increasing? The answer has to be yes. How much of those rises are down to the major vendors opportunistically adding of a few percentage points versus an increase in fixed costs, such as electricity, is pretty much irrelevant. The advice remains the same: the cloud is here to stay although its luster has dulled over time.

Time, then, to wheel out the ROI calculator and ensure there’s been no stealthy vendor lock-in. All clouds and all workloads are, after all, not created equal.

IBM has announced that its software portfolio in AWS marketplace is expanding, and is now available in 92 countries.

The software is currently available in Denmark, France, Germany, United Kingdom and United States. However, the expansion beyond these countries aims to make procurement easier for clients, streamline purchasing and create new efficiencies, while allowing them to use their AWS committed spend for IBM software purchases.

The expansion will provide clients with more access to IBM’s AI and data technologies within a portfolio of 44 listings and 29 SaaS offerings that are available for purchase. These include components of the watsonx AI and data platform, which allow enterprises to build, scale and govern AI workloads.

For example, Watsonx.data is a fit-for-purpose data store built on an open data lakehouse architecture, and Watsonx.ai is a next generation enterprise studio for AI builders are available in AWS Marketplace, alongside two of IBM’s AI Assistants – watsonx Assistant and watsonx Orchestrate. Watsonx.governance is expected to be available soon.

Other software includes IBM’s flagship database Db2 Cloud Pak for Data as well as a portfolio of automation software including Apptio, Turbonomic and Instana, and the IBM Security and Sustainability software portfolios – all built on Red Hat OpenShift Service on AWS.

The company is also launching 15 new IBM Consulting professional services and assets on AWS Marketplace, exclusively designed for AWS. To align with client needs and demand, the offerings focus on data and application modernization, security services and tailored industry-specific solutions – with generative AI capabilities included in select services.

Matt Yanchyshyn, general manager, AWS Marketplace and partner services, AWS said: “IBM’s global expansion with AWS Marketplace opens up innovation opportunities for our joint customers across the world.

“By leveraging the speed and simplified procurement capabilities of AWS Marketplace, customers can now more easily access IBM’s cutting-edge solutions, enabling them to accelerate their digital transformation and drive innovation at scale. This expanded collaboration between AWS and IBM reflects our shared commitment to empowering customers with the tools and resources they need to succeed in today’s fast-paced environment.”

Nick Otto, head of global strategic partnerships, IBM, said: “By expanding the availability of our software portfolio in AWS Marketplace, organizations around the world will have greater access to a streamlined way to procure many IBM AI and hybrid cloud offerings to help propel their business forward.”

VMware by Broadcom has made some fresh concessions to its cloud service provider community – and the customers who rely on it.

As reported in March, not all members of VMware’s Cloud Services Provider (VCSP) program were invited to continue. Those dropped as VCSP members were instead offered the chance to acquire white label services from remaining participants in the program, with a tight deadline to sort out those new arrangements.

In mid-April, Broadcom CEO Hock Tan promised an extended period of “modified monthly billing arrangements until the white label offers are available.”

Now VMware’s veep for partners and advanced solutions sales, Ahmar Mohammad, has offered more detail on the arrangements.

His post reveals that all existing VCSP premier tier members will retain that status, and that special exemptions may be granted to “partners not yet signed up for the program and that may have unique regulatory constraints or country specific sovereign data requirements (example: European Economic Area and United Kingdom).”

That sounds a lot like a concession to Eurocloud lobby CISPE, which has strongly criticized Broadcom and called for a European Commission probe into the acquisitive giant’s takeover of VMware.

Another big change sees partners that exited the VCSP program allowed to continue operating their cloud services until the end of April 2025. Such partners – some of whom did not choose to exit the program but were shown the door – previously faced the prospect of immediately closing their clouds and/or signing up to resell white label services.

The sudden migrations necessitated by that change were obviously not easily achieved. Now cloud providers that quit VMware – and their customers – have a year to sort things out.

Another change means VCSP partners have an extra month to seek an exemption that will let them continue in the program, or sign up for white label services from another partner. That’s not a huge amount of extra time but, again, will offer some relief to what was previously a very short deadline to make changes. Some new classes of partners are also allowed to become white label providers.