In this Cloud Wars Minute, Bob Evans discusses recent litigations between two major Cloud Wars Top 10 companies.
Highlights
00:35 — “I am not a fan of anti-trust, anti-competitiveness litigation,” says Bob. “I need to point out that Microsoft has been the subject of some pretty intense comments from a Google Cloud executive about anti-competitive practices and policies in Europe.”
01:00 — In a recent Reuters article, Google Cloud VP Amit Zavery had a few things to say about Microsoft. Specifically, he said:
- “Microsoft definitely has a very anti-competitive posture in the cloud.”
- “Microsoft is leveraging its dominance in on-premises” to limit the choice that customers have.
- There are certain “bundling practices” and “licensing restrictions” that make it “difficult for customers to be able to choose other providers.”
“That, I think, is the real ‘nub’ of the issue that Google Cloud is trying to raise with the European Union and their very active regulators and litigators over there,” explains Bob.
02:12 — In a related Reuters article that was linked in this piece, it mentioned that in the past decade, Microsoft has been fined $1.7 billion by the EU. Microsoft’s president, Brad Smith, wrote a lengthy blog post a year ago, explaining the company’s position in the EU. Bob says the blog is somewhat “meandering” and the company pledged to do a number of things with the EU.
03:22 — The fact that these two large, capable companies are engaging in this litigation is a “potentially bad sign” because every “effort and dollar” going into this litigation is potentially one less effort and dollar going towards innovating and dazzling customers.
04:19 — Overall, this is unfortunate, Bob expresses. He is hopeful that it gets steered back in the direction of who does the best job for customers and partners.
