Google Complains To EU Over Microsoft Cloud Practices (reuters.com) 22
Alphabet unit Google filed a complaint to the European Commission on Wednesday against what it said were Microsoft's anti-competitive practices to lock customers into Microsoft's cloud platform Azure. From a report: Google, whose biggest cloud computing rivals are Microsoft and Amazon Web Services, said Microsoft was exploiting its dominant Windows Server operating system to prevent competition. Google Cloud Vice President Amit Zavery told a briefing that Microsoft made customers pay a 400% mark-up to keep running Windows Server on rival cloud computing operators. This did not apply if they used Azure. Users of rival cloud systems would also get later and more limited security updates, Zavery said.
Google pointed to a 2023 study by cloud services organization CISPE which found that European businesses and public sector bodies were paying up to 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) per year on Microsoft licensing penalties. Microsoft in July clinched a 20-million-euro deal to settle an antitrust complaint about its cloud computing licensing practices with CISPE, averting an EU investigation. However, the settlement did not include Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and AliCloud, prompting criticism from the first two companies.
Google pointed to a 2023 study by cloud services organization CISPE which found that European businesses and public sector bodies were paying up to 1 billion euros ($1.12 billion) per year on Microsoft licensing penalties. Microsoft in July clinched a 20-million-euro deal to settle an antitrust complaint about its cloud computing licensing practices with CISPE, averting an EU investigation. However, the settlement did not include Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Platform and AliCloud, prompting criticism from the first two companies.
1 monopolist complains about another. (Score:2)
Sure! THEIR lock in SUUUUCKS!
But OUR lock-in is pretty fucking awesome!
BUY OUR CRAP!
Yet another reason..... (Score:2)
Re: Yet another reason..... (Score:2)
This has literally nothing to do with the OS on your device, it is about cloud devices. Why are you here if you can't even read?
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the geeks have always been here, adding their geek noise, joining teams
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Err...from what I read...the suit alleges that if you run a server with Windows in Azure, and want to move OUT of Azure...MS will give you less support for the OS and charge you more to run windows (license, etc) on servers on another cloud server.
That seems OS related to me...those servers in the cloud "do" generally run some form of an OS, eh?
Re: Yet another reason..... (Score:3)
You choose what OS the servers you lease are running, and pay the appropriate license.
What it sounds like here is that if you want to use Windows server on AWS, you pay a licensing fee much higher than if you use Azure.
This is basically like Comcast giving away access to Peacock for free if you subscribe to Xfinity, but charge you $12/month if you arenâ(TM)t.
Vertical integration. I donâ(TM)t think this is illegal, if Google wanted to compete, they need to focus on providing a way to move off of wi
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I don't think this is illegal
You think wrongly. The only reason all these complaints get handled in the EU is that US anti-trust law is crap.
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if Google wanted to compete, they need to focus on providing a way to move off of windows server easily.
Move how? If their customer needs to Windows Server to run Exchange, then a Linux server is out of question, the customer would need to switch to a different emailing solution.
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Who said anything about devices? You can switch to Linux from Windows on servers too. Quote "customers pay a 400% mark-up to keep running Windows Server on rival cloud computing operators." There are Windows-only server apps.
Yeah ok, "Eric" (Score:1)
LOL! A monopolist [slashdot.org] complaining about another monopolist's actions? You can't make that shit up!
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Perhaps. But the complaint is also easy to believe.
This is going to be hard to win... (Score:2)
This is going to be a hard case to win. Take Active Directory. Yes, it is the only directory system that scales large enough to handle billions of objects and millions of people, but there are other directory services out there like FreeIPA, OpenLDAP, eDirectory (formerly Novell Directory Services). Yes, MS is the biggest, and in a lot of cases, the only game in town, but they can argue that due to the others, they are not a monopoly.
Similar with Windows servers. MS can point to Linux and say that there
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Things are pretty clear. Microsoft has no leg to stand on.
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This is going to be a hard case to win. Take Active Directory. Yes, it is the only directory system that scales large enough to handle billions of objects and millions of people, but there are other directory services out there like FreeIPA, OpenLDAP, eDirectory (formerly Novell Directory Services). Yes, MS is the biggest, and in a lot of cases, the only game in town, but they can argue that due to the others, they are not a monopoly.
Yes, the customer could in theory switch from AD to an alternative like 389 Directory Server, but such a switch would take a lot of money and effort that the customer is enticed to stay with Windows and Azure. This is the definition of using your monopoly in one area to attain monopoly in another different area.
Google got outcompeted and lost the cloud war... (Score:2)
Re: Google got outcompeted and lost the cloud war. (Score:1)
As always (Score:2)
Privatize the profits and socialize the losses.
MS vs Google (Score:2)
vs
Announce, Alpha, Abandon
Everyone could file competition complaints (Score:2)
All companies / affected parties are entitled to file antitrust complaints in Europe [europa.eu]. In particularly when you have a case.
It is nothing special, it is just not as often done as would be possible
Bundling for instance is illegal for a monopolist.
In related news... (Score:2)