Today we’re taking a big step, but not necessarily the last step we will need to take, and we look forward to continuing feedback from European cloud providers, customers and regulators,” he added. “In other words, let’s move rapidly so we can learn quickly. “As I said in a video meeting a few weeks ago with the CEO of a European cloud provider, our immediate goal is to ‘turn a long list of issues into a shorter list of issues’. While these actions are “broad” they are also not “necessarily exhaustive”, continued Smith. It added: “This will make European cloud providers more competitive by enabling them to better serve customers.” In addition, the company said it was also taking steps to ensure European cloud providers could “more easily host a wider variety of Microsoft products on their cloud infrastructure”. The remaining two pledges made by Microsoft include a commitment to “ensure our cloud offerings meet European governments’ sovereign needs, in partnership with local trusted technology providers” and a vow to “recognise that European governments are regulating technology, and we will adapt to and support these efforts”.Īccording to Microsoft, these pledges mark the start of the work it is doing to address regulatory concerns, and are intended to “guide all aspects of our cloud business, enhance transparency for the public, and help us to better support Europe’s technology needs”. These pledges include commitments to ensuring its “public cloud meets Europe’s needs and serves Europe’s values”, that its platforms are set up to ensure “the success of European software developers” and that it will provide “support for European cloud providers” through partnership. In a blog post dated, Microsoft president and vice-chair Brad Smith said the company was taking “meaningful action” on the complaints being raised against it, including the adoption of five pledges that it claims will shape its approach to doing business in Europe in years to come. The company has also filed a complaint against Microsoft of a similar nature with Germany’s own antitrust authorities. Nextcloud’s complaint has since won the support of more than 50 tech firms and non-profit organisations, leading to the formation of a coalition that is collectively speaking out against how Microsoft sells and packages its cloud software in Europe. It claims this practice is “aggressively pushing consumers to sign up and hand over their data to Microsoft”. Nextcloud’s antitrust complaint, filed in early 2021, takes umbrage at the way Microsoft bundles its OneDrive cloud storage service and online collaboration platform Teams in with its flagship Windows operating system. This information is based on complaints filed with the European Commission by several European cloud service providers, including German file sync and share software maker NextCloud and French infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) provider OVHcloud. “The commission has information that Microsoft may be using its potentially dominant position in certain software markets to foreclose competition regarding certain cloud computing services,” the questionnaire said, reported Reuters. Microsoft published a blog post this week acknowledging the antitrust concerns that have been raised with regulators and authorities about its cloud-related business practices in Europe, which it also used to outline a series of “meaningful” actions it would take to address the issues raised.Īs detailed in a report on Reuters last month, these concerns are known to have prompted the European Commission’s antitrust authorities to send a questionnaire to Microsoft customers and competitors, asking for their views on Microsoft’s cloud-related licensing deals.
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