The cloud has long been sold as the ultimate solution for modern infrastructure—scalable, convenient, and hassle-free. But as more companies are discovering, the cloud’s promise comes with a steep price: vendor lock-in. Once you’re in, the top cloud providers make it nearly impossible to leave without incurring massive costs. A recent LinkedIn post by David Hansson, CTO of 37signals, highlights this exact issue, and at bare-metal.io, we believe there’s a better way.
The High Cost of Leaving the Cloud
David Hansson recently shared 37signals’ journey of moving away from AWS after over a decade of using S3 to store petabytes of data for Basecamp, HEY, and their heritage apps. The egress fees alone to move their data out of AWS were staggering—potentially costing them hundreds of thousands of dollars. Fortunately, AWS offered them temporary credits to cover the data transfer out to the internet (DTO), as shown in this breakdown from their service team:
- $9,450.00 on Account ending [redacted]
- $251,500.00 on Account ending [redacted]
- $5,900.00 on Account ending [redacted]
That’s over a quarter of a million dollars just to move their data out of AWS! While AWS eventually comped this bill as part of their public commitment to ease migrations, Hansson noted that it took time to get approved. This highlights a broader issue: cloud providers’ business models often rely on trapping customers with high egress fees, S3 puts and gets, and other hidden costs that make leaving feel like a financial nightmare.
For 37signals, the move paid off. By transitioning to their own Pure Storage flash infrastructure, they’ll eliminate their $1.5 million annual S3 hosting bill, replacing it with a yearly cost of under $200,000 after amortizing their $1.5 million hardware investment. This shift will compress their overall infrastructure bill from $3.2 million to under $1 million—a savings of over $2 million annually, all while maintaining the same operational team.
The Cloud’s Business Model: Lock You In, Bleed You Dry
The cloud industry has spent years convincing businesses that owning hardware or operating Linux servers is too complex or costly. But as Hansson points out, this narrative serves the cloud providers’ bottom line. Their business model thrives on making you dependent—once your data and workloads are in their ecosystem, the costs to leave (like egress fees) become a massive barrier. Add in charges for every S3 put, get, or data transfer, and you’re stuck paying a premium just to access your own data.
This isn’t innovation; it’s exploitation. Cloud providers like AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud have built empires on the idea that you’ll never leave. But companies like 37signals are proving that there’s another way—one that prioritizes control, cost savings, and freedom.
Bare Metal: Your Off-Ramp from the Cloud Trap
At bare-metal.io, we’re here to provide a seamless off-ramp from the cloud. Unlike the big cloud providers, we don’t nickel and dime you with egress fees, S3 puts and gets, or other hidden costs. Our bare metal solutions give you the performance and control of dedicated hardware without the financial handcuffs of the cloud.
Imagine if 37signals had been with bare-metal.io from the start—they wouldn’t have faced that $250,000+ egress bill to move their data. With bare-metal.io, data transfers are straightforward and cost-free, allowing you to focus on what matters: running your business, not managing cloud vendor traps. Our solutions are designed to scale with your needs, offering the reliability of physical hardware without the bloated costs of cloud services.
Take Back Control of Your Infrastructure
The cloud can be a good choice in certain scenarios, but it’s not the only way. As Hansson put it, the industry “pulled a fast one” by convincing everyone that owning hardware is impossible. At bare-metal.io, we’re here to challenge that narrative. Our bare metal infrastructure empowers you to take back control, reduce costs, and avoid the vendor lock-in that cloud providers rely on.
If you’re ready to say goodbye to exorbitant egress fees and sky-high hosting bills, let’s talk. With bare-metal.io, you can migrate your workloads, save millions, and celebrate the freedom of a cloud-free future—just like 37signals will this summer when they finally close their AWS account for good.
Contact us for more information.
