Google Exploring Options Against Microsoft's Licensing Practices, Google Cloud Head Says

Alphabet unit Google's cloud subsidiary will look into other options in its fight against Microsoft's licensing practices, the head of Google Cloud head said on Wednesday. From a report: The comments by Amit Zavery came after Microsoft reached a deal with trade body CISPE to resolve the latter's antitrust complaint about its cloud licensing practices. "Many regulatory bodies have opened inquiries into Microsoft's licensing practices, and we are hopeful there will be remedies to protect the cloud market from Microsoft's anti-competitive behavior," he said.

"We are exploring our options to continue to fight against Microsoft's anti-competitive licensing in order to promote choice, innovation, and the growth of the digital economy in Europe."

Re:

[FudRucker]

it is sort of like the pot calling the kettle black

Re:

[LazarusQLong]

now there is a saying you don't hear much these days!

Details?

[Mononymous]

Not even TFA defines the "licensing practices" that are at issue.
I don't think there's any conversation to be had without those specifics.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:Details?

[ClickOnThis]

This link has details about the settlement: https://www.computerweekly.com... [computerweekly.com]

TL/DR: The Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers in Europe (CISPE) cut a deal with Microsoft and dropped legal action against them, in return for fair licensing deals. Microsoft has 9 months to prove its good faith, or CISPE's legal action may be revived.

In short, the CISPE wussed out. Their deal protects all cloud providers in their group ... except Google and AWS.

Sounds anti-competitive to me. I'll grab the popcorn and watch to see how this ends.

Re:

[bill_mcgonigle]

It looks like you get deep discounts for running M$ software on Azure and possibly those licenses are non-transferable out of Azure.

To be sure, these articles are mostly a litany of complaints against how people feel, not what's going on.

WWWWWH ...

New defiinition

[Ol Olsoc]

Anti competitive behavior is now defined as your business simply having a competitor.

Kind of back asswards as now monopolies are considered the proper business model. Eliminate or financially cripple your competitor so you are the only one left.

The goddamned cloud anyhow. I have a guy working for me who simply loves Google Drive. He uploaded some documents that I needed that day, then went on vacation for a couple weeks, apparently internet free. Wasn't until he came back and I called him that he said "Oopsies." Added me to access the folder, and the cloud in it's perfection, allowed me to finish my rather important report, a mere 14 days late. The people I sent it to were not at all pleased, and neither was I.

I told him I regularly fall on my sword for my people, but if that happened again, he was going to get a promotion to be the author of a few weeks late report, and I would give him full credit and responsibility for it.

"in Europe"

[SmaryJerry]

Because the European Union hates American companies and is always looking for any excuse to fine them, Google could easily succeed. There is a reason Google would not try the same in the US.

Re:

[erik.martino]

The EU goes against large companies that stifle competition. Competition is essential for a healthy market place and capitalism in general.

Real issue is office...

[DigitalCH]

The real issue for google is that with Azure you can be a single cloud provider, but that isn't true if you go AWS or Google, you have to go multi-cloud if you use them. You still need to contract with Microsoft for office and team which are ubiquitous in the enterprise world. The AI shift doubles down on that, as Azure is the best cloud for AI primarily because of the OpenAI deal and the fact they have co-pilot tooling integrated with all your work tools out of the box.

what is the issue exactly

[awwshit]

Other than saying 'licensing practices' and 'cloud', I'm not clear what the issue is exactly. Is it Office365? Is it Server licenses?

Which licensing practices are the issue exactly?

Re:

[Kaedrin]

It sounds like its effectively licensing M365 so that third party resellers can compete in the cloud service space by running the M365 platform on their own hardware in other regions of the world, allowing them to compete against Microsoft's hardware directly while still licensing Microsoft's products which most major organizations use to run on their hardware instead.

The following linked above by schneidafunk seems to explain it decently: https://www.computerweekly.com... [computerweekly.com]