Tech giant Microsoft is facing accusations from both Amazon and Google regarding its unfair and anti-competitive practices that threaten the cloud computing business sector.
On Tuesday, both Amazon and Google criticised Microsoft’s changes to the cloud computing service, which they claimed limit competition and discourage customers from switching to other competing cloud providers.
On Monday, Microsoft announced certain licensing agreement changes including others that are supposed to take effect on Oct. 1 that will make it easier for cloud providers to compete. However, Amazon, Google, Alibaba and Microsoft’s own cloud services will be excluded from the deals.
“Microsoft is now doubling down on harmful practices by imposing even more restrictions in an unfair attempt to limit the competition it faces, rather than listening to its customers and restoring fair licensing of software in the cloud for all,” an AWS cloud services division official said in an email.
“Customers should be able to move freely between platforms and choose the technology that works best for them, not Microsoft,” said Marcus Jadotte, Google’s vice president of government affairs and Google Cloud policy.
The cloud computing business, which has grown into a massive sector over the years with a market value of $219 billion in 2020, has seen new players emerge on the market to offer various solutions and services to customers and companies alike.
However, just like any other sector, there have been concerns about anti-competitive practices from significant players who want to continue their dominance by imposing unfair tactics to limit or push others out and even keep customers locked to their eco-systems.
Microsoft not playing fair says Google and Amazon
Given the history of some companies, technology giants like Google and Amazon have also played unfair before within their sectors too. For example, the recent rise of developers against Apple and Google regarding their unfair app store fees is among the few things to note.
Mircosoft is now facing backlash for its recent changes to its cloud computing services but wouldn’t that have been avoided if the governments and responsible bodies took action in ensuring that large corporations don’t use unfair tactics to take down other competitors?
Regardless, given the capitalistic view of the economy and how any company has almost free reign to do whatever they want, putting checks in place to counter such scenarios can prove difficult. As long as other big corporations continue to call out each other over anti-competitive practices, it helps to keep things in check though sometimes it doesn’t work.
How Microsoft will respond to the accusations can’t be determined at the moment but don’t be surprised if the new licensing agreement changes are pushed forward regardless of the backlash. Unless the customers themselves decide to take a stand, it is nearly impossible to effect major change.
Cloud computing delivers computing services over the internet. For small businesses, it means on-demand access to web-based applications, data storage, processing, and other services. It also includes infrastructure as a service, platform as a service, and software as a service.
Also, read:Â How the Tech Industry Has Become More Reliant on Cloud Servers
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