Microsoft’s decision to discourage users from running its software on other non-corporate clouds, through higher costs, continues to cause headaches for Google Cloud Platform and Alibaba customers.
Earlier this month, Redmond changed its terms to allow AWS customers to take advantage of it office software on the rival platform, but many are still left out.
A few weeks have passed since the change, and the company has still not indicated whether similar changes will also apply to Google and Alibaba.
Microsoft discourages competitive cloud companies
As of August 1, Microsoft confirmed that “users with specific licenses are allowed to run Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise/business, Microsoft Project, and Microsoft Visio on Amazon WorkSpaces” virtual desktop infrastructure.
Microsoft did not immediately respond Tech Radar Pro‘s request for comment on whether it would make similar concessions to Google and Alibaba.
According to anonymous sources close to Microsoft and competing companies (via The register), “there is absolutely no technical reason” why Google and Alibaba should be left out – “it is purely commercial.”
When the changes were made for AWS customers, we asked Microsoft for comment on why. The company has not commented and it remains unclear why AWS received preferential treatment.
Gartner Research VP Michael Silver believes the general problem persists for all listed providers, including Amazon, and that “customers still need to lobby Microsoft to completely eliminate the limitations of the listed providers.”
Microsoft has proved very popular in European discussion circles, and all for all the wrong reasons. Recently, the company faced a months-long battle over unfair licensing terms that make switching providers or using a multicloud environment both challenging and costly. Besides promising to work with the relevant agencies, Redmond has not shared any details about that.