Google given complaint to the European Commission against Microsoft on Wednesday. In it, Google accused Microsoft of making it too expensive for cloud customers to move their workloads from Azure to other providers, such as Google Cloud.
Google claims that Microsoft’s cloud license terms restrict European customers from switching to competing cloud platforms, even though there are “no technical barriers to doing so”. In a blog post explains In its complaint, Google wrote that Microsoft’s practices “caused significant harm to European companies and governments,” costing European businesses 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) annually, wasting taxpayers’ money and stifling competition.
Amazon’s AWS takes Europe’s cloud market. Microsoft’s Azure is second and Google is third. Oracle, Salesforce and IBM rounded out the top six in the second quarter of 2024.
On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the European Commission confirmed to Engadget that the EU’s governing body had accepted Google’s complaint. “We will evaluate this according to our standard procedures,” EC spokeswoman Leah Zuber said.
Google’s complaint referred to a settlement This summer between Microsoft and CISPE (Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe), the trade body for Europe’s cloud industry. the last one given In late 2022, a complaint against Microsoft accused the company of anti-competitive practices with Azure (strikingly similar to today’s Google complaints). Full details of the settlement that led CISPE to withdraw its complaint have not been released. CISPE wrote in July that it would make changes to address Microsoft’s concerns. These include the release of an improved version of Azure Stack HCI, which will bring features that Microsoft’s customers enjoy to European cloud providers.
In a statement to Engadget, Microsoft was optimistic that the EC would reject Google’s complaint. “Microsoft has amicably resolved similar concerns raised by European cloud providers, even after Google had hoped they would proceed to court,” a Microsoft spokesperson said. Bloomberg report Google has offered a $500 million alternative settlement to keep the antitrust complaint alive. “If we can’t convince European companies, we expect that Google won’t be able to convince the European Commission in the same way,” a Microsoft spokesperson wrote.
Google says Windows Server is at the heart of the complaint. Describing it as a “must-have in many IT environments,” the company said Microsoft has changed its practices since cloud computing became a more profitable business. “However, as Azure faces more competition, Microsoft has introduced new rules that severely limit customer choice,” Google wrote.
Google said licensing terms Microsoft adopted in 2019 “impose excessive financial penalties” on companies that want to use Windows Server software with Azure rivals such as AWS and Google Cloud. “Microsoft’s own statements indicate that customers who want to move their workloads to these competitors will have to pay up to five times more,” Google wrote, referring to the archived 2023. web page Comparing Azure pricing with AWS pricing. Google said Microsoft also limited security patches and created other barriers to choice in cloud providers.
Also linked to Google research from Professor Frédéric Jenny, French economist and chairman of the OECD Competition Committee. European companies and government organizations are paying “unfair, additional costs” to customers who license software to run on their cloud infrastructure from independent service providers, the study claims. Professor Jenny claimed that those who chose non-Microsoft cloud providers “sucked an extra €1,010,394,489 from the European economy in 2022”.
Amit Zavery, Head of Platform, Google Cloud he wrote on Wednesday Microsoft’s practices lock customers into Azure, hurt cybersecurity and limit innovation. Zaveri too spoke with CNBCfavors a more open market for cloud providers. “Limitations today [do] Don’t let customers choose,” he said. Zavery wants to remove Microsoft’s restrictions and allow customers to own and choose the cloud provider they think is best for them from a commercial and technical perspective.
