Euro cloud body heads off to Microsoft's HQ to check it's keeping promises

Exclusive Microsoft and the Cloud Infrastructure Service Providers of Europe (CISPE) trade body this week kicked off their technical summit to assess the Windows maker's progress in making available a version of Azure Local for hosters.

According to an agenda seen by The Register, discussions began on Tuesday afternoon, following lunch, with an hour-long chat about the EU Data Act, which came into force at the beginning of 2024 and deals with the access to and use of data.

The attendees were then set for an exhausting two hours of wine tasting followed by a well-earned dinner.

Wednesday, December 4, was to be more serious, with almost two hours devoted to partner introductions and usage scenarios, just under an hour of repurposed presentations from Ignite about Azure Local, before 55 minutes discussing pilot updates and a half hour to wrap things up and discuss next steps.

The purpose of the technical summit was to check up on Microsoft's progress following CISPE's agreement with the company in July to settle a competition complaint filed with the European Commission over cloud software licensing. Microsoft agreed to pay a relatively small sum – in the tens of millions of dollars – and make some changes to Azure Stack HCI (now rebranded as Azure Local) to allow European cloud providers to match the company's own cloud offerings.

The Register exclusively revealed last week that Google had dangled millions of euros worth of incentives in front of CISPE, allegedly to encourage the organization to continue with the complaint. CISPE opted to go with Microsoft. Google has denied the offer was linked.

According to a draft agenda seen by The Register, the day-and-a-half technical summit didn't feature many technical people on Microsoft's side. There were be two from the Azure team on Wednesday and another from ARC Experiences. The vast majority, however, were from Microsoft's marketing and regulatory teams.

We asked CISPE for its thoughts on the balance and how much it expected to get done in terms of checking Microsoft's compliance.

A spokesperson for the trade body of 36 companies said, "We are expecting a good mix of the senior folks responsible for ensuring the legal elements of the settlement happen and the managers responsible for directing the development teams tasked with building the technical requirements. We have a packed agenda and expect to make progress. We'll report this in the 1st ECCO paper before the end of the year."

A Microsoft spokesperson said, "Our continuing collaboration with CISPE builds on our long-standing commitment and investment to create opportunities and grow the European technology industry."

• £1B lawsuit targets Microsoft for allegedly overcharging Windows customers on other clouds
• Google offered millions to ally itself with trade body fighting Microsoft
• European Cloud Competition Observatory created to keep an eye on software licensing
• CISPE framework aids EU Data Act compliance, cloud switching

A glance at the attendee list shown to The Register and their job titles suggests a group of people unlikely to be able to speak with great authority about Microsoft's progress on the technical aspect of the CISPE settlement. Instead, the attendees on the Microsoft side appear more focused on using regulation against the company's competitors as well as growing, marketing, and monetizing Azure.

The trio of people likely to have sufficient technical knowledge of the product were not due to attend until the second day, according to the agenda, meaning they would have sadly missed out on the wine-tasting and hospitality planned by the Windows giant for the first day. It has always been thus for technical teams.

They were scheduled, however, to join in on the second day and hopefully be able to demonstrate to the CISPE delegation that Microsoft is moving in the direction set out in the settlement from a technical perspective. ®