Tag Archives: CMA

August 1, 2025 · 04:58

The accusers

I saw a message fly past and it took me by surprise. It was CNBC (aka Capitalistically Nothing but Crap) and the accusation was ‘Microsoft and Amazon are hurting cloud competition, UK regulator finds’ (at https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/31/uk-cma-cloud-ruling-microsoft-amazon.html) with “The regulator is concerned that certain cloud market practices are creating a “lock-in” effect where businesses are trapped into unfavorable contractual agreements.” So, that’s a thing now? The operative word is concerned. So, is this the way former Amazon UK boss, Doug Gurr, on an interim basis is showing the world that he released the chain and necktie from Amazon?

There is ‘some’ clustering and as the setting is advocated by some the score at present is “AWS holds approximately 29-31% market share, while Microsoft Azure has around 22-24%, and Google Cloud holds about 11.5-12%” The only surprising thing here is that Google is remarkably behind Microsoft by a little over 10%. Nothing to be worried about, but still the numbers set this out. The infuriating setting by the the CMA giving us “The CMA recommended a further investigation into Microsoft and Amazon under a strict new U.K. competition law to determine whether they have “strategic market status.” I am not ‘attacking’ the CMA, but as the old credence goes “Innovators create corporations, losers create hindrance for others” I suggest you take that as it goes. 

Yet there is more behind this all. Forbes gave us last week ‘Microsoft Can’t Keep EU Data Safe From US Authorities’ (at https://www.forbes.com/sites/emmawoollacott/2025/07/22/microsoft-cant-keep-eu-data-safe-from-us-authorities/) where we see “Microsoft has admitted that it can’t protect EU data from U.S. snooping. In sworn testimony before a French Senate inquiry into the role of public procurement in promoting digital sovereignty, Anton Carniaux, Microsoft France’s director of public and legal affairs, was asked whether he could guarantee that French citizen data would never be transmitted to U.S. authorities without explicit French authorization. And, he replied, “No, I cannot guarantee it.”” And this is how Microsoft faces a near death sentence by the American administration. So much so that Microsoft seemingly is creating a data centre solely for the EU. Julia Rone gave us last year (late 2024) “It has been well acknowledged that the European Union is falling behind the US and China when it comes to cloud computing because of its lack of technological capabilities. In a recently published article, however, I argue that there is another important and often overlooked reason for EU’s laggard status: the persistent disagreement between different EU member states, which have very different visions of EU cloud policy.” I take that at face value, as I am considering (through mere speculation) that these member states are connected to American stake holders in media trying to hinder the process, but that is another matter.

So as we see ““Microsoft has openly admitted what many have long known: under laws like the Cloud Act, US authorities can compel access to data held by American cloud providers, regardless of where that data physically resides. UK or EU servers make no difference when jurisdiction lies elsewhere, and local subsidiaries or ‘trusted’ partnerships don’t change that reality,” commented Mark Boost, CEO of cloud provider Civo.” It makes me wonder how America is different from the accusations that America threw in the face of Huawei. It is like the pot calling the kettle black. And this also gives wonder where the accusation against Amazon and Microsoft ends, because the cloud field is seemingly loaded with political players. They all see that data is the ultimate currency and America (as it is near broke) needs a lot of it to pay for the lifestyle they can no longer afford. In Europe the one that stands out (at least to me) is a firm I looked at in 2023 and it is growing rapidly. It is Swedish and not connected to any of the three and could become the largest in Europe. Its long-term vision involves operating eight hyper-scale data centers and three software development hubs across Europe by 2028, employing over 3,000 people. By 2030, the company aims to operate 10 hyper-scale data centers and employ over 10,000 people. There is too much focus on 2030, as I see it the American economy collapses on itself no later than 2028 and as I speculatively see it, it will drag Japan down with itself. That setting required a larger acceleration in both Europe and Asia as America will not play nice as per late 2026. At that point too many people will see where showboat America is heading too and the reefs in that area will be phenomenal. So, as I see it, the entire political swarm behind data centers and fictive AI will require a whole new range of management and I reckon that players like Amazon and Microsoft have never been dealt these cards before, so I shudder to think what will happen when it faces accusations from the EU, the CMA and others. This aligns with the accusation (from one source) giving us “An antitrust complaint filed by Google to the European Commission in September 2024, alleging that Microsoft’s licensing terms unfairly favor its own Azure cloud platform, making it difficult and expensive to use Microsoft software like Windows Server and Office on competing clouds.” I wonder, didn’t Microsoft played a similar game with gaming?

So whilst the infighting is going on on a continued setting, I wonder where Oracle will end up being? As I see it this is rather nice, but I am accusing myself at this point that we aren’t face with a tidal wave, but merely with 5 cups of tea all stating there is a storm happening and whilst the teacups are talking to each other and showing how bad the storm is, the reality is that it is not smooth sailing, but seemingly as close to it as possible. For that you need to see where Evroc is standing, where it is going and how fast it is achieving this. The second market is Oracle, how it is progressing and who it is partnered with (pretty much everyone) and these two elements show us that there are governmental captains stating that their pond is in a dreadful state (whilst presenting their cup of tea as a much larger pool then it is) the corporate captain stating there is a storm brewing, but absent of evidence and the media is flaming every storm it can so that they can get their digital dollars. But consider that Oracle is presenting good weathers and there are alternatives whilst the media actively avoid illuminating Evroc, with only TechCrunch giving us in March “Amid calls for sovereign EU tech stack, Evroc raises $55M to build a hyper-scale cloud in Europe” there were a few more and they are all technical places. The western media is largely absent as there are no digital dollars to be made here.

So consider what you see and try to see the larger picture, because there is a lot more, but some players don’t want you to see the whole image, it distorts their profit prediction. So did you see the little hidden snag? Where is Huawei cloud? Whilst this is going on ‘Huawei hosts conference on cloud technology in Egypt’ where we see that “the event drew more than 600 government officials, business leaders, and ecosystem partners from over 10 countries and regions”, as I see it, this is a classic approach to the “While two dogs are fighting for a bone, a third runs away with it” expression. So consider that part too please.

Have a great day.

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December 1, 2023 · 21:27

Who did you once trust?

That is on the edge of my mind when Reuters gives us (at https://www.reuters.com/technology/google-pushes-antitrust-action-against-microsoft-uk-cloud-market-2023-11-30/) ‘Google pushes for antitrust action against Microsoft in UK cloud market’. In the one hand, we get these kind of issues all the time, the big boys are fighting over terrain, nothing new here. But what does matter is ““With Microsoft’s licensing restrictions in particular, UK customers are left with no economically reasonable alternative but to use Azure as their cloud services provider, even if they prefer the prices, quality, security, innovations, and features of rivals,” Google said in its letter to the CMA.” As well as “Asked why Amazon, which boasts a larger share of the cloud market than Microsoft, did not pose a similarly anticompetitive risk, Zavery said AWS consumers were not facing the same restrictions.” And the operative word is ‘restrictions’, a setting once employed by IBM. It comes from the old expression “Go IBM or go home”, an expression I had not heard since 1991. A setting that gives further pause when we see “Google made six recommendations to the CMA, including forcing Microsoft to improve interoperability for customers using Azure and alongside other cloud services, and banning it from withholding security updates from those that switch.” A consideration that shows us yet again what a bad choice Microsoft has become. Another source gives us “The CMA (Competition and Markets Authority) launched an investigation into Britain’s cloud computing industry in October, following a referral from media regulator Ofcom which highlighted Amazon and Microsoft’s dominance of the market.” This can be seen in one view. The one part that we could consider is that one has a superior product and the other is a bully, Microsoft does not have the superior product. The marketshare settings are Amazon (33%), Azure (22%) and Google (11%), the rest (like Oracle and IBM) are a lot smaller. Now consider that one isn’t playing nice (read: playing the bully), what is the actual setting that should be? I reckon that Amazon would get a decently larger share, some will go to Google giving me pause to think that the Google/Adobe partnership becomes a lot more important and it decreases Microsoft yet again, all because they decided not to play nice, something they have done a few times over as I personally see it.

What is important is that I saw several sources, yet not one of them is a British newspaper, so when did the UK Media think that reporting on this is not in the interest of the British people? How deep are they in the pocket of Microsoft? Don’t take my work for it, seek it for yourself and see just how useless British media has become.

Enjoy the day, my weekend has started, you will be there soon too.

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October 6, 2023 · 15:41

The dangers we ignore

That is the setting we are confronted with, or perhaps better stated the danger that Microsoft exposed itself to. Now, I have been happy to snap at Microsoft at every option I see. Them souring the gaming world gives me ample reason to, or at least that is how I see it.

Yet the poll at LinkedIn gives me another view that I am not alone and yes, as you see I see Azure the biggest intrusion danger of the others mentioned. It is not the only setting that people face and I have issues with some of them. 

You see, there has been a larger issue with Microsoft and they are all about buying their way into other streams at the cost of $69,000,000,000 and we see very little issues on RESOLVING safety and security issues. There is (as I personally see it) a massive architectural problem with the Azure setting. Now, I have NO evidence that this IS the case, but the listings are starting to add up.

July 2023: How a Cloud Flaw Gave Chinese Spies a Key to Microsoft’s Kingdom
June 2022: 6 ‘nightmare’ cloud security flaws were found in Azure in the last year.
Mar 2022: Source code for giant’s web browser app, virtual assistant allegedly leaked

That list goes on for a while and the examples are all out there in the media and online. Yet, instead of setting resources that can fix and redesign that part we see too much spin and not enough fixing. Or perhaps what one fix achieves, it also opens other ‘windows’ into a blue blue data pool.

Now this is speculation from my sider, but the sources as I set them out were never mine. Microsoft is losing and shedding marketshare. This brings me to the article that partially sets this article off.

It was the Verge (at https://www.theverge.com/2023/10/5/23904375/uk-cma-microsoft-amazon-cloud-investigation) that gave us ‘Microsoft and Amazon face UK regulator investigation over cloud services’. In this my issue is sen with “It’s part of a fresh investigation into public cloud providers in the UK, after telecoms regulator Ofcom “identified a number of features in the supply of cloud services that make it more difficult for customers to switch and use multiple cloud suppliers.”” The stupidity of ‘that make it more difficult for customers to switch and use multiple cloud suppliers’ is the delusional setting of some wannabe. You see, you cannot have multiple mainframe operating services running next to one another, you cannot have more than one operating system for a SERVER to run together. You might have two servers and they may have different data settings, but that requires a specially designed API to exchange information, which is a massive security risk, which any corporation does not need. The interesting part is that this same danger would be a case with IBM and Google too, but they are not in that mess are they? Azure and AWS are the larger players and someone wants to cut them short (for whatever reason). A stage made optionally by stupid politicians, optionally with friends that have a solution no one wants (a speculation from my side) and no one is drilling into the claim that we see from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA). I want to see the complete documents and the sources who investigated both Microsoft and Amazon. And the link we see in the article that relates to “Microsoft recently restructured the deal to transfer cloud gaming rights for current and new Activision Blizzard games to Ubisoft”. From my point of view Ubisoft after the next failure to bring a good product (AC Mirage raked at 78%) makes Ubisoft willing to bend over backwards to survive another year. 

As a character from ‘Who framed Roger Rabbit’ states: “this whole thing smells like yesterdays diapers”. And we are all in a stage to accept parts of this, but the political side is seemingly lacking in a larger stage of cloud systems and the amount of transgressions due to Microsoft failures are not met with official investigations and that is before they will block (as one might expect) any investigation into their shortcomings. 

Should you wonder about this, consider the 90’s and mainframes, or perhaps mainframes today and wonder how easy it is to switch those services. Yes, it might be possible, but consider the amount of dollars needed make such a switch non-realistic to say the least and that is on ALL providers. I feel uneasy to say that this should be possible, but I understand that it might have been an essential future issue. Yet, when we see the dangers of cloud services and the way that they are transgressed on. It might be that IBM and Apple clouds are the safest, or they are too small to get any representation and they are both in the other section, which is only 8%, as such the idea of either being a mere 4% against Azure scoring 50% must be some kind of hell for Microsoft and the amount of visibility of their issues are gaining strength all over the media. The Verge is not alone in any of this. 

No matter how people, media and Microsoft are spinning this, they have a problem and them diversifying in fields they do not understand for the mere setting of greed (as I personally see it), is a stage we should have been able to avoid and we are not, because the political parties in too many countries are willing to let too many Microsoft issues slide and that is one of the problems we all face. Is too much of what I write here speculation? That would be a fair question. Yet what actions have political parties taken to keep their national corporations safe? I am asking that question. You see, there is no top-line data from any media on that simple given part. The media seemingly doesn’t want that, Microsoft definitely does not want that and there we see a dangerous setting of ‘advertisers’ versus informing the audience. The setting that I have referred to in the past as the connected stakeholders. Yes, I could be wrong, but I have been in the IT business since 1979. I have seen a lot and I have a long memory, as such there is plenty of evidence all over the field. So why am I the only one seeing this? Yes, again, it could merely be me. However, is that the case? 

I will let you mull this over and draw your own conclusions. Enjoy the day, the week is almost over.

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September 6, 2022 · 22:12

Just to be clear

Yes, that is essential. I am about to throw caution to the wind and do something (optionally extremely stupid) that has never been done before. Yet that is for tomorrow (or the day after). For now we focus on Microsoft. I did not plan this, yet with the article (at https://www.reuters.com/markets/deals/uk-watchdog-further-probe-microsofts-687-billion-activision-deal-2022-09-01/) we get ‘Microsoft’s $69 bln Activision deal could harm competition, UK says’ I keep my voice in the middle in this. You see I always applauded exclusives, in any system. It made Nintendo the behemoth it is today and Sony has had its successes as well, as did Microsoft with its Master sergeant in Halo. All systems had this and even as I hated Microsoft buying Bethesda, it was a brilliant tactical ploy. I did counter it by giving away RPG IP to all Amazon Luna and Sony Playstation developers, but it is a valid ploy. Yet Microsoft keeps on buying companies. It is their funeral. Yet the UK only reacts to Activision? So when I see “Microsoft Corp’s $69 billion acquisition of “Call of Duty” maker Activision Blizzard could harm competition in gaming consoles, subscription services and cloud gaming, and it needs to be investigated in depth” this might be fair enough, but it seems that there is a larger issue here and it is not with Microsoft, I have more questions regarding certain ‘investigators’. Now, as stated before, I am no Microsoft fan for a few reasons and those who have read my articles know what I am about. But here is something more and I was happy that some people had (again) not done their homework. This is seen with ““We want people to have more access to games, not less,” Microsoft President and Vice Chair Brad Smith said. “Sony, as the industry leader, says it is worried about ‘Call of Duty’, but we’ve said we are committed to making the same game available on the same day on both Xbox and PlayStation,” he said.” I am hereby calling Brad Smith a LIAR! You see with the purchase of Bethesda they have clearly stated that the new Elder Scrolls is now an Xbox exclusive. As such we see Brad Smith as the liar and Sony gamers as the victim. But there is another side. Microsoft has been pushing its cloud gaming, and that is the path they will take, to host Microsoft cloud games on other systems, so that they can honestly claim that they service all systems, as long as it goes via their cloud capturing data (a speculation, I admit).

And the cloud solution is seen with “the deal would not be anti-competitive if competitors were given access to Microsoft games, as Microsoft has pledged” It is the ‘access to Microsoft games’ part that is the stage and interestingly enough there is no ‘release on other systems’ part. It is a larger capture and I get it, it is decently brilliant. As such I gave the others a new RPG game, parts of the stage, parts of the story (to get them started) and within a week another nice surprise that will cost Microsoft dearly (if all goes well) and on September 30th several parts become public domain, and only the clever sleuths will be able to find it. A new way to push the industry in a new direction. It is a crazy step and it took me months of pondering, but as I was given the afternoon off, I went to a local internet cafe and activated the timer. It is the start of one hell of a ride that might not go anywhere, but it will make the headlines and show the shortcomings of a few tech players (including Microsoft), yet the article bothers me. You see I believe in exclusivity, as such the quote “Microsoft needs to give a greater deal on assurances and put down in writing certain specifics around exclusivity” bothers me. What specifics? An exclusive game is an exclusive game. That is the case for Nintendo, Sony and as such also Microsoft. They are allowed exclusive games and if they buy Activision for 69 billion, they got the company and the exclusives are theirs. I might not like it, but that is the game, I countered by handing a totally new and unique RPG game to Amazon Luna and Sony Playstation free of charge. That was my choice, and over time I do believe the stupidity of Microsoft will be the death of them (I will be happy to help out though). 

And over time we will see shifts, the streamers will make sure of that, but that is the day after tomorrow. For now we focus on today and tomorrow. And here the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) might be an optional enemy. You see, Mario has been a Nintendo exclusive for a long time, for decades but the CMA did nothing there. So what gives now? They did not act on the buy of Bethesda, so what gives now? They are all focussing on “Call of Duty”, there is no mention of Diablo, a franchise no less important. And I get it, they have a case. Microsoft got greedy and now there is an issue. Yet I still feel bothered, because this stage opens the end of exclusives and that is a problem. It is a problem because the games will end up being as good as the weakest system and that is not acceptable. Am I overreacting? Perhaps a little, but there will always be differences in games. And these differences will make a game better on either system A or B, and that is fine. But when a system MUST be there for both one system will lose out more and they will have a game that is less than optimal and that is a larger problem. Gaming must always be at the edge of technology and that makes gaming great. As such not all games will work on all systems. Some games will be better in one location, some will be better in the other place. Exclusives are more than a game on one system. They are the games that uses that system to the maximum of what is possible. It is one reason why we love our exclusives. So I cannot tell if the CMA has a point but from a pure gaming point of view they are on a slippery slope as I personally see it.

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