Welcome to the Cloud Wars Minute — your daily cloud news and commentary show. Each episode provides insights and perspectives around the “reimagination machine” that is the cloud.
In today’s Cloud Wars Minute, I dive into the recent allegations from Google Cloud regarding Microsoft’s pricing policies.
Highlights
00:04 — I want to bring up something that involves some policy issues and legal filings in Europe about pricing policies and licensing policies set up by Microsoft. So, I’m calling this the Microsoft mystery right now. Is it charging, as is alleged by Google Cloud, European customers up to five times as much to use multi-cloud?
01: 05 — Google Cloud filed a complaint with the European Commission. The Google Cloud complaint has a link to a Microsoft page, and it shows a graphic that says if you want to run Windows Server on AWS, it’s five times more expensive than if you run it on Azure. So, why not go with Azure?
02:05 — Google Cloud’s point is that if a customer wants to take Windows Server, move it out of Azure, and run it over on AWS, then the new licensing agreement makes the customer pay up to five times as much. If true, that really undercuts the notion that Microsoft wants to play in this multi-cloud world that’s been emerging over the last several months.
Ask Cloud Wars AI Agent about this analysis
03:13 — A group called C.I.S.P.E., the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers of Europe, is also filing papers and motions with the European Commission. Now, Microsoft understandably rejects these claims as not true. But I tried reading through some of the Microsoft responses; they’re overwhelmingly complex and focus more on legal issues.
03:53 — Google Cloud cites the work by a European economist. He says there’s been an adverse effect on European customers that totals up to a billion euros or more. And he claims that a lot of the customers are afraid to speak out about this because they fear Microsoft will subject those customers to audits and other unpleasant experiences.
05:04 — Microsoft has had, over the past year, some terrible problems with security. Now, if there is any truth to these claims being raised by Google Cloud and the European trade group of cloud infrastructure providers and so on, it would show a crack in Microsoft’s armor that maybe it could be challenged in the top spot in the Cloud Wars Top 10.
