UK watchdog says AWS and Microsoft must do more to ease cloud switching

Amazon Web Services and Microsoft have made it easier to switch cloud providers but still have more to do, the UK competition watchdog said on Friday.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also proposed bringing Microsoft under its toughest digital rules.

The update is the CMA’s first progress check since March, when it accepted voluntary commitments from the two companies instead of opening a formal investigation into the cloud market. At the time, it said it would look at progress again after six months.

Since then, both companies have connected their data centres directly to their rivals’, starting with Google. They have also dropped fees for customers who move their data to another provider.

On top of that, both now let customers and rivals request better links between services and offer AI tools that help with a move.

Next, the CMA wants both firms to make it easier to manage user logins and access across different clouds. It also wants…