Cloud competitors fight back against microsoft license changes the register
Microsoft’s cloud competitors have reacted negatively to changes the company announced to licensing this week, claiming they are anti-competitive and will discourage customers from switching to other cloud providers.
The Redmond giant confirmed major overhauls and upgrades to its Outsourcing and Hosting Terms on 29.8and said these would benefit partners and customers worldwide by simplifying licensing terms for using Microsoft software in the cloud.
In short, the changes, effective October, allow customers with Software Assurance or subscription licenses to use those existing licenses “to install software on any outsourcer’s infrastructure” of their choosing.
but The registry written down The exception at the time was “listed providers,” a group that just so happens to include Microsoft’s biggest cloud competitors — AWS, Google, and Alibaba — as well as Microsoft’s own Azure cloud, to drive customers into Microsoft’s network of partners.
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And while the company said these changes are being made for the benefit of customers and in response to partner feedback, Microsoft was in fact responding to legal action from European cloud operators like OVHcloud for their disadvantaged licensing practices with higher operating fees, for example Windows on clouds other than Azure .
However, some in the cloud sector are unhappy with Microsoft’s overhaul, given the general feeling that Microsoft has not addressed the heart of the matter.
“The promise of the cloud is flexible, elastic computing without contractual commitments. Customers should be free to move between platforms and choose the technology that works best for them, rather than what’s best for Microsoft,” Google Cloud VP of Government Affairs & Policy Marcus Jadotte wrote in a response Posted on twitter.
Meanwhile acc ReutersAWS parent Amazon was even more critical. A company spokesman said, “Microsoft is now reinforcing the same harmful practices by imposing even more restrictions in an unfair attempt to limit competition – rather than listening to its customers and restoring fair software licensing in the cloud to all.”
These criticisms are not entirely new, and some in the cloud sector have made similar points after Microsoft Disclosure of some of the license changes she planned to make in May.
A cloud operator, who asked for anonymity, said The registry in June that Redmond’s proposed changes would fail “move the needle” and ignore the company’s “other problematic practices.”
Another AWS executive, Matt Garman, posted on LinkedIn in July that Microsoft’s proposed changes did not represent fair licensing practice and did not meet customer needs.
“MSFT’s response is not to do what’s right for customers and set their policies so that all customers can run MSFT software on their cloud provider of choice; rather, under the pretense of supporting European technology requirements, MSFT proposes choosing cloud providers via who is less competitive and runs MSFT software only on those providers,” he said.
Microsoft is currently examined by the European Commission about these allegations of anti-competitive practices related to cloud licensing. While the license changes could appease some European cloud operators, it seems likely that the company could still struggle with politics for intentionally excluding its biggest competitors from the new terms.
The big three providers dominate the global cloud market and account for 65 percent of cloud infrastructure services spend Figures from Q1 of this year. Amazon accounted for 33 percent, Microsoft Azure 22 percent, and Google Cloud 10 percent. ®
https://www.theregister.com/2022/08/31/cloud_rivals_hit_back_at/ Cloud competitors fight back against Microsoft license changes • The Register
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