Microsoft Customers Decry Cloud Contracts That Sideline Rivals

An anonymous reader shares a report: The current tide of antitrust scrutiny and regulations focused on big technology companies has conspicuously omitted one company: Microsoft, the software and cloud-computing behemoth that was the notorious target of a landmark U.S. government lawsuit in the 1990s. Microsoft, the thinking goes, was already humbled by years of intense government oversight, and since it largely caters to other companies, instead of consumers, it doesn't belong in the same category as Facebook, Amazon, Google and Apple. But now some Microsoft customers, and some of its fiercest rivals, are making a bold claim: The software giant is again using its sway over one market to thwart competition in another. Microsoft three years ago overhauled the way it licenses some of its most ubiquitous software programs, including Windows and Office, in ways that increase the cost of running those programs on rival cloud-computing systems like Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform. In some cases, the revamped agreements outright forbid using some products on competing cloud services. AWS and Google say they have complained to Microsoft on behalf of multiple customers. French cloud provider OVH, along with other unidentified companies, filed a complaint last year with European regulators about the practice, saying it's also being hurt by Microsoft's policies. Major business software customers, some of which are only now starting to see the impact as they renew deals or replace aging programs, are also incensed.

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