- AWS, Microsoft and Google testify in the United Kingdom CMA investigation
- Microsoft’s terms and license rates seem to be a problem
- Google denies domain, says he is a challenger
Since the United Kingdom Competition and Markets Authority has been investigating the health of the United Kingdom cloud market, hyperscalers in question have been fighting each other by presenting small excavations in the official documentation aimed at acting in their defense.
This time, AWS is criticizing Microsoft for its unfavorable license terms, which prevent customers from using alternative cloud storage suppliers without excessive rates.
“Perhaps 50% of those workloads that are currently running in Azure would move elsewhere if it were economically feasible,” AWS told the CMA.
AWS criticizes Microsoft’s license terms and high rates
Microsoft’s 2019 changes increased costs related to the execution of Windows Server in Cloud No Azure (such as AWS, Google Cloud and Alibaba Cloud), which does it up to four times more expensive for customers.
These rates do not only affect the client. “AWS said you have to compensate for additional costs imposed by Microsoft license restrictions, including the cost of licenses they must buy again and the additional monetary impact of priceless features,” continues the summary of the CMA audience, but “cannot compensate all those costs in a profitable way.”
Google also agreed with AWS’s comments in a separate audience summary, providing an example in which a customer chose Azure only for commercial/license reasons despite having a real preference for Google Cloud.
However, Google might not be completely on the side of Amazon. The company described itself as a “supplier of the Challenger cloud and a distant third in size for the two market leaders, AWS and Microsoft.” Even so, Google is concerned that Microsoft can master the United Kingdom’s cloud market in just five years “if nothing changes[s]. “
When defending his position, Microsoft argued that the output rates are not an important concern for customers, and added that even after eliminating rates under the EU Data Law, the change remained low.
The result of the investigation is a assumption of anyone, but the domain of the market is clear.
When ofcom presented for the first time its complaint to the CMA in October 2023, it said in a report that Microsoft and Amazon represented 70-80% of the cloud market of the United Kingdom in 2022, estimated that is worth £ 7 to £ 7.5 billion. Google, thirdly, only represented 5-10%.
