# Cloud Exit Standard

> Five falsifiable tests for whether a service preserves a customer's practical ability to leave.

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LLMS index: [llms.txt](/llms.txt)

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The Cloud Exit Standard asks one narrow question: **does this service preserve
the customer's practical ability to leave?** It does not rank product quality,
feature depth, market share, or whether buying the service was a good decision.

## Five criteria {#criteria}

| ID | Test | Question |
| --- | --- | --- |
| [C1](/standard/c1-no-exit-toll/) | No exit toll | Does leaving trigger punitive transfer or extraction charges? |
| [C2](/standard/c2-whole-data-export/) | Whole-data export | Can the complete usable dataset be exported in bounded time? |
| [C3](/standard/c3-standard-interfaces/) | Standard interfaces | Can core operations be reproduced through public, implementable interfaces? |
| [C4](/standard/c4-no-commitment-lock/) | No commitment lock | Do commercial commitments preserve a practical path out? |
| [C5](/standard/c5-accountable-downtime/) | Accountable downtime | Are incidents, remedies, and responsibility auditable? |

Every criterion uses the same page contract: **definition → verification →
worked example → boundaries and objections**. A result is scoped to a product,
region, plan, and review date; it is never a timeless verdict on a company.

## What this standard is not {#not}

- It is not a demand that every workload leave every cloud.
- It is not a security certification, availability benchmark, or purchasing recommendation.
- It is not a moral ranking of providers.
- It does not infer a result from a logo, company size, or deployment model.

The [method](/standard/method/) defines evidence, review, expiry, and appeal.
The [registry](/standard/registry/) remains empty until an entry clears that
process.

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Section pages:

- [C1 · No exit toll](/standard/c1-no-exit-toll/): Test whether leaving triggers charges that are disproportionate to delivery cost or ordinary use.
- [C2 · Whole-data export](/standard/c2-whole-data-export/): Test whether all customer-owned data and required metadata can be exported in usable form and bounded time.
- [C3 · Standard interfaces](/standard/c3-standard-interfaces/): Test whether core data-plane operations can be reproduced through public, implementable interfaces.
- [C4 · No commitment lock](/standard/c4-no-commitment-lock/): Test whether discounts, credits, and term contracts preserve a practical economic path out.
- [C5 · Accountable downtime](/standard/c5-accountable-downtime/): Test whether incidents, impact, remediation, and contractual accountability remain auditable.
- [Rating method](/standard/method/): Scope, evidence hierarchy, scoring states, review cadence, expiry, correction, and appeal for the Cloud Exit Standard.
- [Provider registry](/standard/registry/): Evidence-backed Cloud Exit Standard results, scoped by product, region, plan, and review date.
- [Badge policy](/standard/badge/): Publication and usage rules for a future Cloud Exit capability badge.
- [Scope and non-targets](/standard/scope/): What behavior the Cloud Exit Standard tests, and what it deliberately leaves outside the line of fire.