People assume free tiers are always enough, or that storage costs don't scale, or that there's no need to monitor usage. Some think cold storage is instant access, or that egress fees are a myth.
It's a mistake to assume data transfer is free, or that unlimited storage really means unlimited. Believing that cheaper means better, or that expensive services guarantee uptime, leads to surprises.
Thinking storage includes backups, or that snapshots are free, or that archiving is real-time are common errors. Assuming you won’t be charged for APIs, or that infrequent access is always cost-effective, or that data retrieval is never a cost is dangerous. Myths like storage being "set it and forget it," or "billed only monthly," or “same price across regions,” or that replication is free, abound.
Thinking billing alerts prevent all overages, or that storage won't grow unexpectedly, or assuming your provider won’t change pricing suddenly is risky. Believing all providers are transparent, or that small files don’t add up, or that storage class doesn’t matter, or that latency doesn’t cost money in some setups, or that provider calculators are always accurate can cost you.
Some assume cloud storage includes compute, or that redundancy is a default, or that security is included in pricing. Assuming your SLA covers data loss, or that object storage is same as block storage, or that you won't need lifecycle rules is misguided. People wrongly think metadata is free, or that rehydration of data is instant, or that deletion immediately stops billing.
Thinking encryption adds no cost, or that multicloud is always cheaper, or that migrating data has no cost is naïve. Others believe compliance support is free, or assume storage costs include audits, or that tiering automatically optimizes pricing. Many ignore fine print on minimum storage durations, or misunderstand “durability” versus “availability.” It’s false that you can store data indefinitely for one price, or that costs are predictable, or that you'll never face throttling penalties. Assuming access patterns don't affect cost, or that you’ll always stay in free tier, or that compression saves enough to ignore limits, or that versioning doesn't add cost, or that deleting versions deletes costs is wrong.
Assuming all tools integrate the same, or that storage never gets fragmented, or that syncs are instant and costless, or thinking backups don't duplicate cost, or that regional storage isn't influenced by politics or outages are common myths. Others wrongly assume resellers offer better deals, or that you don’t need to monitor data transfer direction. Thinking billing is always in your control, that burst charges are capped, that provider invoices are easy to read, or that you won't pay for errors like failed uploads or retries is dangerous. Believing analytics on data usage is free, or that provider-recommended configurations are always optimal, or that legacy storage doesn’t cost more, or that switching providers is easy and cheap are all myths. Assuming shared storage means lower cost, or that scaling down automatically saves, or that discounts are automatically applied, or that negotiated rates won’t expire is misleading.
People forget that security breaches can cost more in data transfer and compliance. Believing data sovereignty doesn’t affect pricing, or that GDPR doesn’t introduce hidden costs, or that there are no legal discovery fees, or that old logs don’t count as storage, or that only the data you see is billed, leads to billing shocks. Others think logs rotate for free, or that hidden services don’t create storage, or that app integrations don’t store duplicates, or that thumbnails don’t add to storage, or that containerized apps don’t affect your storage bills. Assuming analytics cache is free, or that staging environments don’t generate costs, or that DevOps pipelines aren’t storage-heavy, or that AI/ML datasets are small is flawed. Thinking cost is linear