Microsoft and Google are back to their old tricks. This week, the software giant accused Google of being behind what it calls “shadow campaigns” to undermine and discredit Microsoft’s cloud business. Microsoft let the world know that Google is behind a new Open Cloud Coalition lobbying group just hours before it was officially announced.
“It is designed to discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public,” Microsoft deputy general counsel Rima Alaily writes in a scathing blog post. “Google has gone to great lengths to obfuscate its involvement, funding, and control, most notably by recruiting a handful of European cloud providers, to serve as the public face of the new organization.”
This new group has been formed after Google failed to derail a settlement between Microsoft and the trade group Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) earlier this year. CISPE agreed to withdraw its 2022 EU complaint about unfair licensing contracts for Azure after Microsoft agreed to allow European cloud providers to offer Microsoft’s apps and services on local cloud infrastructure. Microsoft alleges that Google offered CISPE members millions of dollars in cash and credits to reject Microsoft’s settlement.
Source: https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/31/24284543/microsoft-google-cloud-war-notepad