Smart City Consultant’s Post

It's disappointing to see the news that the CMA has chosen to renew its contract with AWS – despite currently investigating the impact that hyperscaler anti-competitive practices are having on UK cloud.   In all honesty, it’s a huge blow to all those operating in UK cloud. This could have been a way to promote competition in the UK market and support the challenger and homegrown providers, rather than signing the biggest deal yet with the hyperscaler provider.   I shared my thoughts on the situation with Christine Horton, who explored the impact of agreements, like the UK’s One Government Value Agreement 2.0 (OGVA), have had on public sector IT spending.   There’s an election on the horizon and whoever’s in No.10 this time next year needs to be considering this with some urgency.    Take a look at Christine’s article in Channel Futures here: https://lnkd.in/ek3H4743

This is a bad deal for consumers, a bad deal for cloud providers and will ultimately prove to be a bad deal for CISP members. Time for regulators to step in and negate the obvious inducement Competition and Markets Authority #cloud #Competition #CISP The Register https://lnkd.in/e9yYU--H

Riddle me this... How can a government department be objective over anti competitive practices when they are not only using the product, but are looking to actually spend more? Is this a just a tactic to get their own cost down with AWS? will the investigation just disappear in to the shadows? May be I'm just a conspiracy theorist. Hay, #justsaying  #CompetitionandMarketsAuthority #CMA #ofcom #AWS #cloud https://lnkd.in/eWDikU8W

Exciting News from AWS! [if you still haven't heard] Amazon Web Services (AWS) has just announced a significant change in its pricing strategy. The company is now removing data transfer fees for clients who want to transfer their data to another cloud service provider will not have to pay any network fees globally. This move empowers businesses to explore new opportunities and seamlessly transition to AWS without worrying about additional costs. This decision underscores AWS's commitment to providing value and flexibility to its customers, further solidifying its position as a leader in the cloud computing industry. Whether you're considering a switch or already part of the AWS ecosystem, this update opens doors for innovation and growth. Learn more about this update here: https://lnkd.in/e8bWtVix #AWS #CloudComputing #Innovation #BusinessGrowth #TechNews

Big news from Amazon's AWS! Clients looking to switch to a different cloud service provider no longer have to worry about data transfer fees. This is a game-changer for businesses looking to make the switch. This article provides the details. https://lnkd.in/gwvqfg8g

https://lnkd.in/dUYFsV5c Here are some tips to avoid vendor lock-in: 1. Evaluate cloud services carefully 2. Ensure data can be moved easily 3. Keep internal backups 4. Ask questions like: What happens if we need to switch vendors? How can you help us with deconversion if we decide to move somewhere else? 5. Get everything in writing with clearly defined roles and responsibilities #vendorlockin #cloudcomputing #cio #cto #cloud #itinfrastructure #itarchitecture #hod #itdirector #competition #commission

Microsoft is currently facing a significant legal challenge in the UK, with a $1.27 billion lawsuit accusing the #software giant of unfairly overcharging customers who use rival #cloud services. The case, which was filed on December 3 at the Competition Appeal Tribunal, centers around Microsoft’s alleged anti-competitive pricing strategies that impact businesses relying on cloud services from competitors such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Alibaba Cloud. The lawsuit claims that Microsoft has created an unfair pricing structure by offering discounted rates for companies using Windows Server on its own Azure platform, while simultaneously charging higher fees for those who wish to use the same software on non-Microsoft cloud platforms. https://lnkd.in/gtcb_Sx8

A great article from Nicky Stewart. I hope the Competition and Markets Authority listens to this and widens its scope from its limited Four Theories of Harm. The market is uncompetitive for many other reasons #FreeCredits and #PoorGovPurchasing to name but a few. #cloud #cloudcomputing #CSP https://lnkd.in/dGzV4yK2

AWS follows Google in announcing unrestricted free data transfers to other cloud providers AWS has revealed (https://lnkd.in/eEwBDfGt) that it will allow customers to transfer their data out of its ecosystem with no so-called “egress fees” (https://lnkd.in/e3TJVqzJ) attached. The news follows some two months after Google announced (https://lnkd.in/eTr7-ZBr) similar plans, though in Google’s case as the third-biggest player in the #publiccloud #triopoly (https://lnkd.in/evCRZTEE) after Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft , it was heavily incentivized to “lead by example” — if it’s cheaper to leave AWS or #Azure entirely, then a company might just be more inclined to jump ship to #GoogleCloud. However, these decisions also follow provisions set out in the #EuropeanDataAct (https://lnkd.in/eyKNS64b)) which came into force in January, designed to promote competition by allowing #cloudcustomers to switch providers more easily — either to an entirely different cloud; through adopting a multi-cloud approach; or pulling all their data back in-house to an on-premises infrastructure. While AWS already allowed customers to transfer up to 100GB of data per month off its servers for free, this won’t be enough to cover larger companies looking to “lift and shift” their entire data stores to another provider — and that is what is effectively changing for #AWS customers as of today. It’s also worth noting that while the #EuropeanDataAct is entirely concerned with promoting #competition in #Europe, AWS’s move applies to its operations globally (similar to Google’s announcement earlier this year). https://lnkd.in/eCutyiW5