The Weird Way Microsoft Is Now Working With Google
Microsoft has a major bone to pick with Amazon and it's drumming up help from Google and others to rectify it.
Microsoft has decided to try and work with Google for an interesting reason. The company wants to take aim at Amazon. And it thinks enlisting the help of Google can help to take on the e-commerce giant in one specific area of business – cloud computing.
Currently, Amazon is the market dominator for anything and everything cloud computing-related. Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the cloud infrastructure that currently reigns supreme in the United States and globally. Thanks to AWS, Amazon enjoys a 39% global market share in the area of cloud computing, putting it at number one in the sector. Microsoft encompasses the number two spot, with its Azure platform accounting for 21% of the total market. Microsoft sees a problem with Amazon having such an expansive lead in the space and it wants Google to help them change that.
Microsoft isn’t stopping at asking Google for help though. It’s also vying to gain support from other entities such as Oracle in its quest to take on Amazon. Reportedly, Microsoft has also spoken to Dell, Hewlett Packard, VM Ware, and International Business Machines regarding the matter. Microsoft is so focused on drumming up support in its pursuit to strip Amazon of its cloud computing market dominance (at least in the United States) because its plan to do this involves approaching the US Government to create a cloud structure where multi-cloud use is preferred. This means that the market will morph into one where it is preferable to employ the services of more than one company’s cloud platforms, similar to the mentality of not putting all of one’s eggs in one basket.
So why is Microsoft so concerned with Amazon’s cloud market dominance that it is resorting to vying for the support of others like Google? Namely, it’s because Microsoft relies on the profits from its cloud infrastructure to support major areas of its business. According to the Wall Street Journal, about half of Microsoft’s earnings come directly from the cloud services portion of its company. But recently growth in the sector has slowed substantially, thus motivating the tech giant to look for ways to reinvigorate the stagnant sector.
However, while it’s easy to infer that Microsoft’s latest mission to take on Amazon comes directly down to protecting its bottom line, the company has maintained that they have always felt a multi-cloud ecosystem was preferable. “[Microsoft] has consistently advocated a multi-cloud approach as a commercial best practice,” asserted a spokesperson for the company. Oracle, whose cloud market share is substantially smaller than both Microsoft’s and Amazon’s, said that it wholeheartedly supports Microsoft its efforts to, in a sense, level the playing field. “Microsoft is exactly right advocating for a multi-cloud strategy in government. We support their efforts wholeheartedly and plan to assist them in any way possible,” said Ken Glueck, executive vice president at Oracle.
In response to Microsoft’s pursuits, Amazon has defended the position it has garnered in the cloud computing space with AWS. “Public-sector customers should have the freedom and flexibility to determine how to obtain secure, reliable, and cost-effective cloud services and software—from the vendor or vendors of their choice—without mandates or unfair software licensing restrictions,” said a company spokesperson.
