Microsoft Corp. announced today that amended licensing deals and other contractual changes will make it easier for cloud service providers to compete with the company when they go into effect Oct. 1.
The announcement comes in response to a three-year old complaint over Microsoft’s unfair licensing terms in the European Union.
Writing on its EU Policy Blog, Microsoft said it recognizes the importance of a “competitive environment in the European cloud provider market, in which smaller competitors can thrive.” As such, the company says, it’s taking steps to “remain mindful” of its responsibilities as a major tech provider.
The move dates back to 2019 when a number of EU-based Microsoft customers filed complaints stating that the company’s licensing terms made it prohibitively more expensive to run Office and Windows workloads on cloud computing platforms such as Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. That led to inquiries by local antitrust regulators, and Microsoft later admitted that the complaints against it were valid.
Microsoft dragged its feet, but almost three years later, in May 2022, it finally announced it would take steps to ensure customers could run its software on non-Microsoft cloud platforms in the EU for a similar price. The exact details of the plan were announced today.
The company said in its blog post that it will overhaul its outsourcing and hosting terms within the next two months. As a result of those changes, companies will find that it becomes easier and more cost-effective to use Microsoft’s software on rival cloud platforms.
Microsoft Corporate Vice President Nicole Dezen later elaborated on the changes, telling blogger Paul Thurrot that the company is simplifying its licensing terms and expanding the range of products that will be offered on a fixed-price basis for longer durations, in line with customer requests. “We also want to provide more opportunities for customers to be able to have Microsoft software hosted on partner’s infrastructure,” Dezen added.
As part of the plan, Microsoft will also introduce a new Flexible Virtualization Benefit — a new Windows Server virtual core licensing option for Software Assurance and subscription licenses — while scrapping its Virtual Desktop Application add-on license requirement for Microsoft 365 F3, E3 and E5. Instead of that, customers will be able to choose from several pre-built hosted desktop and server solutions from third parties within the Microsoft Cloud Solution Provider program. Then they can either bring their own license or purchase one directly from the Microsoft partner.
According to Microsoft, the change is meant to make it easier for customers to move their licenses between different clouds, giving them more flexible deployment options for the Microsoft software they rely on.
