The Shift in Cloud Computing Landscape and Regulatory Scrutiny
Cloud computing has long been promoted to businesses as a cost-effective solution for accessing compute resources, with the ability to scale usage based on demand. This led many enterprises to transition their on-premise data centers and migrate their applications to the public cloud.
In the early 2010s, businesses had a variety of public cloud providers to choose from, including HP, Dell, Rackspace, Microsoft, Google, and Amazon Web Services (AWS). However, towards the end of the decade, HP, Dell, and Rackspace exited the public cloud market due to the dominance of AWS, leading them to focus on private and managed cloud services.
Today, the cloud infrastructure market is primarily led by three major players: AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud. Recent data from Synergy Research Group in early February 2024 shows that AWS holds 31% of the global cloud infrastructure services market, followed by Microsoft with 24% and Google Cloud with 11%.
Despite the market being dominated by a few key players, regulatory bodies, including the UK’s communication regulator Ofcom, are beginning to scrutinize the activities of these companies. Ofcom launched an investigation in September 2022 into the UK’s £15m cloud services market, focusing on AWS, Microsoft, and Google to assess competition and market position under the Enterprise Act 2002.
A interim report published by Ofcom in April 2023 highlighted anti-competitive behaviors by AWS and Microsoft, potentially harming UK consumers and businesses. This led to considerations of referring the market to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) due to barriers for users to switch cloud providers or add new ones.
The investigation’s findings underline the challenges users face in terms of flexibility and choice in the cloud infrastructure market, prompting regulatory action to ensure market competitiveness and fair practices.