Cloud computing promises simple, flexible, well controlled infrastructure. For the vast majority of organizations that have migrated to it, that promise holds true, until the day the bill arrives. Because between the price advertised on the hyperscalers’ websites and what you actually pay, there is often a wide gap. And nobody really explains that gap to you.

In this article, we do our best to break down the reasons behind costs that the major players in the market don’t put in bold print, and as usual, we give you the keys to take back control of your cloud budget in 2026.

The finding: rising waste for the first time in five years

The Flexera 2026 State of the Cloud report, based on a survey of 753 cloud decision makers around the world, reveals a concerning reality: cloud spend waste rose to 29 percent for the first time in five years. In plain terms, close to one dollar out of every three spent on cloud produces no real value for the organization.

Managing cloud spend remains the top challenge for 85 percent of organizations, still according to this report. And despite growing maturity in governance, the complexity brought on by AI and new PaaS and SaaS offerings makes budget forecasting harder than ever.

And this isn’t only a problem for large enterprises. According to Systalink, cloud costs are higher than expected for six organizations out of ten, and 71 percent of organizations expect their cloud spending to increase.

The five costs your cloud contract doesn’t highlight

The pricing model of the major cloud providers rests on a well oiled mechanism: entry is simple, transparent, attractive. So far, no problem in sight, you might say. It’s the exit, and everything that happens in between, that holds the surprises.

1. Data egress fees

Sending your data to the cloud (ingress) is almost always free. Extracting it, on the other hand, to consult elsewhere, transfer to another service, or simply retrieve it, comes at a cost. These fees, known as “egress fees,” are calculated per gigabyte transferred, and can quickly send a bill soaring.

2. Over provisioning

Over provisioning accounts for 30 to 40 percent of cloud related costs. The gap between provisioned capacity and actual demand is 40 percent for processors and 57 percent for memory, according to Byteoia. It’s the equivalent of renting a 1,000 square meter warehouse because you might need it someday, and paying the rent every month whether it’s full or empty.

Between us, the “just in case” logic is reassuring in the short term. It’s costly in the long term, which isn’t viable for any business, small and medium enterprises especially.

3. Additional services that pile up

Security, backups, monitoring, technical support, compliance. Each of these elements is often presented as an option, an add on, a supplementary module. But in practice, they’re indispensable. And every option adds to the base bill, often without anyone in the organization having approved the full basket.

4. Exchange rate

Most American hyperscalers set their pricing in US dollars. Even with totally stable consumption, a Canadian organization’s monthly bill can vary significantly depending on CAD/USD exchange rate fluctuations, a particularly unstable variable in the current economic climate, let’s be honest.

In plain terms, your consumption hasn’t moved. Your budget hasn’t either. And yet your bill went up. Welcome to the reality of a cloud budget denominated in foreign currency.

5. Vendor lock in

Egress fees have a well documented strategic effect: they raise the barriers to migration and discourage businesses from switching providers, even when doing so would be in their interest. According to the French Ministry of the Economy, switching cloud providers can carry costs equivalent to 125 percent of the annual subscription cost.

In other words, the longer you stay, the more expensive it becomes to leave. That’s what’s called “vendor lock in,” and it’s a cost you pay without ever seeing it show up on an invoice.

What this means concretely for Quebec organizations

According to a Gartner survey, only 48 percent of digital transformation projects fully achieve their objectives, and globally, failed initiatives cost organizations roughly 2.3 trillion dollars per year. This isn’t a technology problem. It’s a problem of visibility and governance.

Gartner forecasts that spending on sovereign cloud infrastructure will reach 80 billion dollars in 2026, up more than 35 percent in a year, with 20 percent of workloads migrating from the major hyperscalers to local cloud providers. Organizations are starting to understand that the advertised price isn’t the real price, and that budget predictability has value in itself.

Your non exhaustive checklist for taking back control of your cloud costs

Before renewing or signing your next cloud contract, here are four questions to ask your provider, or your internal team.

What are my data egress fees? Ask for the exact rate per gigabyte, by region, and simulate what it would cost to retrieve all of your data today.

What is my real utilization rate? If you don’t know what proportion of your cloud capacity is actually being used, you’re probably paying for empty space. A provisioning audit can reveal immediate savings.

Is my bill in Canadian or American dollars? If it’s in USD, build a fluctuation margin into your annual budget, or choose a local provider whose pricing is set in CAD.

What would it cost to switch providers today? If the answer is vague or unsettling, that’s a sign you may be in a position of dependency. Better to know now than during a renegotiation.

If we had to sum it up

Cloud remains one of the most powerful technology levers available to organizations in 2026. But like any powerful tool, it deserves to be understood before being used at full capacity. Six organizations out of ten pay more than expected. 85 percent name costs as their number one challenge. And waste is climbing again for the first time in five years.

This isn’t inevitable, it’s a problem of governance and visibility.

At Oriso, we believe that pricing transparency isn’t a luxury, it’s a basic condition of a healthy partnership. Billing in Canadian dollars, a predictable budget, and a human point of contact who knows your infrastructure, that’s exactly what we build with every client.

Because a good cloud partner should never surprise you at the end of the month.