Britain's antitrust watchdog has launched an investigation into the cloud computing market, expressing concerns about the dominance of Amazon and Microsoft.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has been investigating the cloud computing sector since 2023, with a focus on the market leaders AWS (Amazon Web Services) and Microsoft Azure. The market is estimated to be worth around 9 billion pounds ($11 billion) in the UK, with Google Cloud Platform holding a smaller share.
The CMA's preliminary findings indicate a lack of effective competition in the cloud computing market, resulting in increased costs, limited choice, and diminished quality for businesses. The agency has identified several factors contributing to this situation, including:
- A limited number of providers with a dominant market share
- Technical and commercial barriers that hinder customers from switching between providers
- Microsoft's alleged use of its dominance in enterprise software (such as Windows Server and Microsoft 365) to limit competition in the cloud computing market.
The CMA has stated that Microsoft's actions may be making it difficult for AWS and Google to compete effectively for customers who wish to use Microsoft software on the cloud. The investigation will explore these concerns further, considering the impact on businesses and the broader digital economy.
The outcome of the CMA's investigation could result in remedies designed to address the identified competition concerns and improve the functioning of the cloud computing market in the United Kingdom.