[hjhffyuu57]

That makes sense and is a factor in our calculations, we store everything at least twice (as in RAID + actual copies not including tape off-site results in ~ 2GB stored for every GB), with at least a third replicated to DR off site backup. That explains the on paper per-GB price difference (which we would expect to be more expensive in the cloud, the main advantage being that we don't have to coordinate all of that, so there are areas where we would save, its just very difficult to do a price comparison given we don't know the details of their system).

It doesn't explain a huge percentage increase though. Presumably they (Google) were already doing due diligence there with respect to reliability.

Essentially agreeing with you on all those points though. Especially the bit about the PR hit. It's a constant factor in our budgeting with the understanding that if you "lose the backups", you are probably out of a job.