AWS and Microsoft's Azure Face Antitrust Probe in UK

The UK's communications watchdog has called for a probe into Microsoft and Amazon's dominance of the country's cloud computing market in the latest challenge to the tech giants from global regulators. From a report: Ofcom said on Wednesday it was "particularly concerned" by the practices of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, which together control between 60 and 70 per cent of the UK cloud market. It has proposed referring the sector to the Competition and Markets Authority for further investigation. Cloud computing is dominated by Amazon and Microsoft, and has become a crucial driver of revenue at the tech giants. But growth in demand for these services has slowed this year and customers have sought to cut costs, with some complaining of rising prices and the difficulty of moving between cloud providers. Ofcom's move comes amid growing global scrutiny over the cloud market. Last year, Microsoft changed its cloud licensing policies in Europe in an effort to head off potential antitrust action from regulators in Brussels. The tech companies are already the targets of competition watchdogs in the US, UK and EU on multiple fronts, with investigations into Microsoft's $75bn acquisition of video games maker Activision and Amazon's deal to buy Roomba-maker iRobot. Ofcom said it was concerned that, if unchecked, the concentration of cloud computing supply in the hands of a small number of large US companies could lead to British customers paying more and smaller groups being squeezed out of the market.

Sounds nationalistic...

[MBC1977]

I mean, could these technologies been developed over there, sure. I'm perfectly sure of that. However, if your businesses chose not to do so or use them, its not the company (i.e. Microsoft / Amazon's) they are using fault is it?

Only FUD?

[drinkypoo]

There are zero details in the linked article.

Here's the closest thing to details:

Weâ(TM)veâ.â.â.âuncovered some concerning practices, including by some of the biggest tech firms in the world,â said Fergal Farragher, Ofcomâ(TM)s director responsible for the market study.

But they have yet to release the study. So basically, Ofcom has announced that they're going to say something? Very amazing, much wow.

I don't even have any trouble believing that they're behaving anticompet

Nobody else is competing

[ebrandsberg]

Yes, there are other cloud providers, such as GCP and Oracle, but in so many areas, they simply fall short in providing the level of service that AWS provides. If you look at database offerings for example, AWS has a huge lead over competitors with their Aurora offering. Nobody else really has anything comparable. Source: I have to work with all the major cloud providers as an ISV, and have products sold through all their marketplaces. AWS is simply better than the rest in providing the building blocks

Re:

[KlomDark]

I prefer Azure, but yes, AWS and Azure make GCP and Oracle look like the mess of servers in my basement. Those are terrible, expecially Oracle.

Re:

[sg_oneill]

TBH I refuse to use Google, because i dont trust them. Its impossible to predict whether they'll just retire essential services we rely on. And if we cant predict, we cant plan, and if we cant plan, it wont happen.

And I'd resign before ever having to deal with the swarming nightmare that is Oracle ever again. Oh sure their database IS nice. But the company? Hell no.