- Microsoft is now a member of the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe
- It will be a non-voting member with limited influence over decisions
- Microsoft wants to build a “constructive partnership” in Europe
After months of battling it out with cloud providers globally, and particularly in Europe, regarding its alleged anticompetitive business practices, Microsoft has now joined CISPE, the group that lodged the complaint in the first place.
Microsoft is now the 39th member to join the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers of Europe (CISPE) group, following its recent settlement with the body.
However, it wasn’t welcomed by all board members, with main rival AWS speaking out against Microsoft’s inclusion.
Microsoft has joined CISPE as a non-voting member
Although Microsoft has now joined as a member of CISPE, it remains a non-voting member, which means that its influence on policy decisions will be limited.
“We are grateful to the CISPE membership for accepting our application as a non-voting adherent member and will continue to focus on building a constructive partnership that supports European cloud providers,” Microsoft said in a statement to The Register.
CISPE hasn’t released a formal announcement regarding Microsoft’s inclusion.
In the meantime, skepticism surrounding Microsoft’s status as a CISPE member has raised questions about the effects on the organization’s independence. It now has influence from AWS and Microsoft from within – two of the leading hyperscalers that dominate the market.
The third hyperscaler, Google, has previously been unsuccessful in its efforts to join CISPE. Instead, it helped form and joined the Open Cloud Coalition, however, Microsoft Deputy General Counsel Rima Alaily slated Google for organizing an “astroturf group” to “discredit Microsoft with competition authorities, and policymakers and mislead the public.”
TechRadar Pro has reached out to Microsoft and CISPE to confirm the membership status and ask for further comments, but neither responded immediately. Any update will be shared here.
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