Google claims that Microsoft’s ‘Walled Garden’ is leading to a monopoly in cloud computing.

Brussels: Alphabet’s Google Cloud on Monday stepped up its criticism of Microsoft’s cloud services practices, saying its rival is seeking a monopoly that would hurt the development of emerging technologies such as generative artificial intelligence.

Microsoft and Amazon have recently attracted attention in Britain, the European Union and the United States for their market power in cloud services. Google is a distant third behind the two leaders.

Microsoft’s collaboration with OpenAI, the creator of ChatGPT, has also raised concerns.

“We’re concerned that Microsoft wants to change their decades-long practice of having a big monopoly on on-premise software, and now they’re trying to push it into the cloud now,” Google Cloud services director Amit Zavery said in an interview. .

“So they’re creating this whole walled garden that’s completely controlled and owned by Microsoft, and customers who want to do any of these things just have to go to Microsoft,” he said.

“If the Microsoft cloud doesn’t stay open, we’re going to have problems and long-term problems, even with next-generation technologies like artificial intelligence, also because Microsoft is forcing customers to go to Azure in many ways,” Zavery said, referring to Microsoft’s cloud computing platform.

He urged the competition authorities to act.

“I think the regulators need to provide some kind of guidance, and maybe some rules, that prevent the way Microsoft is building the Azure cloud business and not allow a local monopoly to bring it into the cloud monopoly,” Zavery said.

Microsoft rejected this claim.

“As the latest independent data shows, competition among cloud hyperscalers remains healthy,” said a Microsoft spokesperson. “In 2023, Microsoft and Google made small gains in AWS, which remains the global market leader by a significant margin.”

Microsoft President Brad Smith took a blunt swipe at Google on Monday.

“Today, only one company is vertically integrated in a way that includes every layer of AI from chips to the booming mobile app store,” he told Mobile World Congress in Barcelona.

Zavery also criticized Microsoft’s contracts with individual cloud vendors, saying they ignore broader issues. The trade group CISPE announced last month that it was negotiating with Microsoft to resolve its EU antitrust complaint over its cloud computing licensing practices.

“Microsoft has been very smart and picked on individual vendors who complain and make unilateral deals, but they don’t solve the larger problem. So they can pick winners and losers in many cases as well, so they pick who they want to compete with,” Zavery said.

Microsoft denied the criticism.

“We have listened and worked constructively and directly with independent cloud service providers to change our license terms, addressing their concerns and providing them with more opportunities. Globally, more than 100 cloud service providers have already taken advantage of these changes,” a Microsoft spokesperson said.