Google Accuses Microsoft of Monopolizing the Cloud Market

Google has spent nearly two decades as a target of European trustbusters. Now it’s got a chance to put that experience to use.

On Wednesday, Google filed a formal complaint with the European Union, saying that Microsoft abuses its market dominance as a software maker to give itself a leg-up in the cloud market, where it’s also one of the biggest players.

Cloudburst

The cloud computing market is pretty top-heavy: The biggest player is Amazon Web Services, with roughly 32% market share. Microsoft Azure is second, with around 23%, and Google Cloud is a fairly distant third with 12%. Cloud computing is the backbone of the internet, and is becoming even more valuable as companies race for compute power to run AI models.

So why target Microsoft if the biggest piece of the pie rests with Amazon? According to Google, it’s because Microsoft leverages its Windows software to sell its cloud services:

• Google said Microsoft charges customers a 400% markup if they try to move their Microsoft workloads to a cloud provider other than Azure.
• In its complaint, Google twists the knife by mentioning a recent EU antitrust charge that claimed Microsoft illegally bundled its Teams software with its workplace suites. Google twists the knife again by evoking the enormous CrowdStrike IT outage that blue-screened computers around the world this summer.

“As highlighted by the massive security outage two months ago, Microsoft’s lock-in tactics can result in a single point of failure that harms businesses, industries, and governments,” Google said. Microsoft’s response was to say it already reached an agreement with European cloud providers, and Google is being a stick-in-the-cloud.

Blue Screen Blues: CrowdStrike, which got alluded to in Google’s complaint, has had a big week. The company sent SVP Adam Meyers to appear before Congress on Tuesday, where he apologized profusely for the July outage and seemingly managed to mollify most of the officials conducting the hearing, an unusual win for a tech exec. The people who’ve filed lawsuits against CrowdStrike, including Delta Airlines passengers and CrowdStrike’s own investors, might prove tricker to placate.