BOSTON & TOKYO -- Findings from the third annual Wasabi Global Cloud Storage Index reveal enterprises across Asia Pacific, including Japan, Australia and New Zealand, continue to experience budget overruns due to cloud storage fees. In fact, 49% of end-user cloud storage spending goes to fees for storage and networking, rather than actual storage used. The Wasabi Global Cloud Storage Index surveyed 1,600 decision-makers involved with their cloud storage purchasing, including 525 in Asia-Pacific (APAC); 250 in Australia and New Zealand and 200 in Japan.

These findings underscore a growing frustration with the traditional cloud storage pricing model, where excessive fees - particularly egress and data access charges - are causing IT and business delays for 50% of APAC organisations. Digging deeper, APAC respondents say networking fees, data management fees, data access and retrieval requests, and egress fees are among the costliest.

“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,” said Andrew Smith, senior manager of strategy and market intelligence at Wasabi Technologies, and a former IDC analyst. “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 takes the lead in ANZ cloud storage decisions, but budget overruns and security concerns persist

· In Australia and New Zealand, sustainability emerged as the top consideration for businesses when selecting a cloud storage provider - marking a shift toward greener IT strategies.
· However, budget overruns and cloud storage fees remain a significant challenge as cloud storage pricing models remain unpredictable, contributing to rising costs across the region, resulting in 66% of ANZ respondents exceeding their planned cloud storage spending in the past year—a higher rate than the global average of 62%.
· Pricing remains the top driver of dissatisfaction among ANZ public cloud storage users, reinforcing ongoing frustration with egress fees, unpredictable billing models, and high cloud storage costs.
· Additionally, the report found that 68% ANZ organisations recover data from public cloud storage at least a weekly for backup purposes, increasing operational costs and adding to ongoing budget challenges.
· Despite the belief that deep archive data is rarely accessed, the reality is that all ANZ organisations surveyed (100%) say they access or retrieve archived data at least annually, with over half of them (64%) reporting a weekly rate of access. Ultimately, one in six (17%) ANZ businesses report negative operational impacts from cold storage performance or access delays, reinforcing concerns over the efficiency of traditional tiered storage models.
· Security remains a focus, yet less than half (48%) of ANZ businesses currently use object lock, a key feature that prevents data tampering and helps mitigate ransomware risks. However, another 48% plan to implement object lock in the next year or beyond, signalling growing awareness of its importance.

Over half of organizations in Japan exceeded their cloud storage budgets last year, more than the global average, as users grapple with excessive fees

· Budget overruns remain a perpetual challenge in Japan, with 63% of businesses exceeding their budget.
· Fees eat up nearly half (49%) of total public cloud storage bills for Japan enterprises, leading to budget overruns.
· A staggering 65% of Japan organizations say egress or other data access fees associated with moving their data out of public cloud have delayed IT or business initiatives. Much higher than the APAC average of 50%.
· Pricing is the top influence on “dissatisfaction” in Japan with their current cloud storage providers, further illustrating the negative impact of fees​.
· Japan organisations are investing in a balanced approach to storage, with 47% using a mix of traditional on-premises and cloud storage, in line with the rest of APAC enterprises.
· Data protection capabilities is the #1 vendor selection consideration​ when choosing a cloud storage vendor for Japan businesses, in line with APAC organisations.
· Use of public cloud storage in Japan has resulted in data security-related benefits for their organisation, with respondents noting public cloud storage makes it easier to prevent and mitigate unplanned data loss.
· 66% of organisations in Japan say they recover data from public cloud for backup and recovery purposes, at least monthly, lower than APAC avg of 80%​.