UK regulators beginInvestigating public cloud infrastructure services in the UKWhether there is an issue of abnormal competition, including the possibility that Microsoft and AWS may face violations of market monopoly.
The UK's telecommunications regulator, Ofcom, has earlier instructed the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to investigate public cloud infrastructure services in the UK, specifically mentioning Microsoft and AWS, the two major public cloud service providers in the UK.
Among them, Microsoft's Azure and AWS public cloud services have already occupied 70-80% of the market share in the UK, followed by Google Cloud with 5-10% market share, while public cloud services built by Oracle and IBM themselves only account for a small market share.
In addition to being investigated for its excessive market share like AWS, Microsoft is also under investigation for licensing methods that may make its own software easier to use on Azure cloud services. If users migrate their services to other public clouds, they may face many entry-level difficulties, such as ease of use and whether costs will increase. As a result, more users continue to use Azure services.
The relevant results will be announced to the public in the near future and will be made known to relevant industry players so that they can take improvement measures. The formal investigation report will be announced to the public in April 2024.
