A cloud market characterized by openness, interoperability, and Fairness Has to be the aspiration for europe, but we are currently far from that.
I fear policymakers may feel that efforts to tackle cloud switching through the data act and contestability in digital markets through the digital markets act (DMA) MAY HAVE ALREREADY SET Us on A COURSE SET achieve this. This is a false sense of security, beCause the reality is that significant gaps remain.
The Data Act Tackles Egress Fees and Some Aspects of Technical Lock-in but it does not do us not deal with unfair licensing practices, Committed Spend Agreements, Committed Spend Agreements, Or Cloud Credits with Limit Choche and Ultimately innovation.
The issue of unfair licensing practices Concerns the Actions of Certain Software Companies who Charge Customers More for Using Competits' Clouds to Host their software, and is under Investigation by competion Auhorrities after Aurope.
Committed Spend Agreements Are often touted, particularly in the public sector, as being great value for customers, despite the fact many findslves having to commit in advance in advance in Mantain their discounts.
This has implications where the risk of lock-in is concerned, and the same is true of firms Who offer free cloud credits to give customers a taste of whatforms can do,
For any Cloud User Wishing to Pursue a Multi-Cloud Approach to Sourcing Services, The Data Act will not help to unpick the web of complexity and cost that unfair licensing practices IPOSE on Them.
Similarly, the DMA is a tool that would see to be inappropries to deal with any of the same issues.
The DMA is designed to tackle gatekeepers intermediateing between business users and consumers. Cloud is not a market of this type and – even if it was – the obligations that the dma might place on any cloud “Gatekeeper” Gatekeeper “Would not Tackle Any of the Unfair Practices That Members of the open cloud coalition Experience.
Finally, Public Procurement, Where Smaller Players Struggle to Penetrate a System that is Stacked in Favor of Incumbents and ThOSE Companies with the Resources to Absorb The Bureaucracy and Assurocity Needed To be competitive, is not addressed eite by any recent efforts by european policymakers to deal with the cloud market.
There are options on the horizon to deal with these issues: upcoming reform of public procedure rules and a moted AI & Cloud Development Act, which mario draghi at least believed shouts ” Playing field ”.
These could be vehicles to improve the situation. Rather than attempt to frame new ex-arrogance or reopen the dma, the quick
The European Commission's Directorate General for Competition and National Competition Authorities have been looking at the cloud market for some time and we think that that decisive action is missed.
Thankfully it seems that some in the european parloment understand this with proposed amendments to its competition report account Licensing practices, and urging competition authorities to take swift action.
In the wake of the paris ai action summit, the commission has talked a lot about europe grasping the ai options, but it will fail unless it has a healthy and fair market for cloud services to the underpin.
The UK's Competition and Markets Authority Watchdog Does Seem to Be Making Progress in Tackling Some of these issues, but europe needs to make sure that it is out Behind.
There is much to do but coch that can be achieved, if there is the political will to do so and a focus on the issues that really matter.