Microsoft EU Cloud Revisions Just So Happen To Exclude Google, Amazon

Facing European antitrust scrutiny, Microsoft has made it easier to virtualize its software on non-Microsoft cloud infrastructure -- just so long as that infrastructure isn't owned by notable competitors Amazon, Google, or Alibaba. From a report: The conflict, months in the making, is striking for a company that has largely avoided the antitrust scrutiny of its rivals, and eagerly sought to distance itself from the anti-competitive complaints and government actions that beset Microsoft in the late 1990s. Microsoft outlined the changes that would take effect on October 1 in a blog post. Nicole Dezen, chief partner officer, wrote that Microsoft "believes in the value of the partner ecosystem" and changed outsourcing and hosting terms that "will benefit partners and customers globally." New licensing terms would make it easier for Microsoft's enterprise customers to bring Microsoft software to non-Microsoft infrastructure and scale the cost and size of theirs or their customer's Microsoft systems on their own hardware, according to Dezen's post. But Microsoft wants to be clear about something: Its Services Provider Licensing Agreement (SPLA) was meant for customers that are offering hosting "from their own data centers," not buying Microsoft licenses to "host on others' data centers." To "strengthen the hoster ecosystem," Dezen writes, Microsoft will remove the ability to outsource to Alibaba, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft's Azure cloud, or anybody using those companies as part of their hosting. Amazon and Google have weighed in, and they do not believe Microsoft is showing its newer, less anti-competitive side. "Microsoft is now doubling down on the same harmful practices by implementing even more restrictions in an unfair attempt to limit the competition it faces -- rather than listening to its customers and restoring fair software licensing in the cloud for everyone," an Amazon spokesperson told Reuters.

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