Google Cloud accuses Microsoft Azure of anti-competitive cloud computing practices while criticizing discussions between the Redmond giant and several European cloud providers.
Amit Zavery, VP of Google Cloud, told Reuters that Google had approached antitrust regulators in the European Union, asking them to put their nose to the case.
Microsoft was quick to react. Brad Smith of Microsoft reacted quickly on the basis of free and undistorted competition. He mentions that Microsoft Azure “holds a number two position in cloud services, with a market share of just over 20% of global revenue.” AWS is number 1 in cloud computing in the world with 34% market share. Google Cloud has 11% PDM.
Microsoft recently proposed to change its cloud practices
But in a particularly dynamic market, driven by companies migrating workloads from their own infrastructures to cloud instances, Microsoft is very aggressive. The rivalry between Microsoft, AWS and Google in the field of cloud computing is therefore very intense.
Microsoft recently offered to change its cloud practices as part of a deal with smaller rivals who, in turn, are expected to suspend their antitrust complaints, Reuters understands. OVHcloud is one of the dissatisfied. This agreement should allow Microsoft to avoid an investigation by European authorities.
“Microsoft certainly has a very anti-competitive position in the cloud space. It leverages its dominant position in the on-premises services space, as well as Office 365 and Windows, to tie Azure and the rest of the cloud services and customers don’t have a choice,” Zavery told Reuters.
“It is difficult to choose other suppliers”
“When we talk to many of our customers, they find that a lot of these bundling practices, along with the way they create pricing and licensing restrictions, make it difficult for them to choose other vendors. “, he added. “They selectively buy out those who complain and don’t make these terms available to everyone. So this is an unfair advantage to Microsoft and the people who complained are related to Microsoft anyway.”
“Whatever they offer, the terms should be the same for everyone, not just the one or two they choose, which shows they have such market power that they can do these things individually I will say to the regulators that they should look at it holistically, even if one or two suppliers can get along, that doesn’t solve the whole problem and that’s the problem that we really need to solve, not the problems of individual sellers”.