Google cries for help over Microsoft’s cloud computing playbook: “Google has lodged an antitrust complaint with the European Commission, accusing Microsoft of employing unfair licensing contracts to suppress competition in the lucrative cloud-computing industry. According to Google’s allegations, it claims that Microsoft uses restrictive licensing terms to “lock in” clients and dominate the cloud market.”
Sure, Microsoft has an inherent advantage since it has been a B2B (business focused company) than Google which has largely been a B2C (consumer focused company), and that positioning has been the reason why Microsoft has sustained its second position, behind Amazon AWS in the global cloud market.
Amazon AWS has the edge on nascent startups while Microsoft Azure has pushed hard into the enterprise world, cross-selling solutions with customers it already sells Microsoft Server. Microsoft Office, etc. But for Google, it has not done well in the startup world for cloud. And most importantly, it does not have the contacts of enterprise companies at the scale Microsoft does. So, looking at it, Google Cloud, despite its amazing technologies, has a distribution challenge which must be solved.
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Windows is the operating system of the enterprise world, and when you deviate at scale from it, you have to pay small “taxes” because it is nearly impossible for any decent company to operate without Microsoft, but you can live without Google, just like citizens cannot live without Google even though you can do personal stuffs without Microsoft! Google wants to change the equilibrium at the enterprise level with this complaint.
Unfortunately for Google, this may be challenging because what it is complaining about is marginal, and there are no visible defensible victims. Who cares if it costs Dangote Cement, Citi Bank, Nvidia, etc more? The government typically comes out fast when THE PEOPLE are involved, and was why Google was in the crosshairs when it paid Apple to keep its search dominance even though it won the global search business via innovation.
That said, I wish Google luck on this case.
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