Carmel Quigg’s Post

Ensuring a level playing field for European #CloudServices providers is at the heart of CISPE's mission to drive #Europe towards a forward-looking, fair and globally competitive #DataEconomy. ⚖ Central to this is holding software giants like Microsoft accountable for unfair #SoftwareLicensing practices. We have amassed substantial evidence demonstrating the harm inflicted by Microsoft's anti-competitive behaviour on the European cloud sector 👇 🔍 In October 2021, a study we commissioned from competition expert Professor Frédéric Jenny revealed that #Microsoft hampers the growth of smaller, independent cloud services providers through practices like tying, bundling, and discriminatory pricing. This directs customers towards Microsoft's #AzureCloud infrastructure. 💸 A subsequent study by Professor Jenny in June 2023 discovered that licensing Microsoft’s #SQLServer on an independent cloud service, rather than Azure, incurred an additional cost of €1,010,394,489 to the European economy in 2022. 💰 He further found that running the pervasive #Office365 Suite of productivity tools on non-Microsoft clouds cost an additional €560,000,000 per year – a surcharge, or tax, of 28% just for the pleasure of running software on third-party clouds. 🔐 In January 2024, a Savanta survey for the Computer & Communications Industry Association revealed that Microsoft unfairly offers discounts on Azure to users of its productivity software, effectively locking customers into a Microsoft monoculture and making it difficult for them to switch providers as their needs change. 💶 In March, we published data indicating that despite our members' ability to provide cloud services comparable to #Microsoft's, the tech giant's discriminatory licensing terms effectively priced European competitors out of the market. Members provided evidence of being charged an average of ~18% more to run SQL server on independent clouds versus Azure. With the evidence mounting, we remain resolute in holding Microsoft to account. We urge the European Commission to launch a formal investigation into Microsoft's anti-competitive behaviour. A competitive cloud services market in Europe is essential for realising the EU's digital transformation. 📚 Learn more 👇 ◾New Evidence: Selling Microsoft Software Destroys Profit Margin for Cloud Service Providers in Europe ➡ https://lnkd.in/dZr4Td8n ◾ Yet More Evidence of Microsoft’s Discriminatory Prices in Europe ➡ https://lnkd.in/dpti-wZN ◾ The Billion Euro Unfair Software Licence Tax on EU Customers ➡ https://lnkd.in/eRG-sBrK #EU #Competition EU Competition Policy

What are the biggest challenges within your organisation? The Local Gov Strategy Forum will bring together over 150 chief executives, directors and heads of departments from across local government to discuss innovative solutions to the current and future challenges facing the sector.   Taking place on the 20th, 21st and 22nd May 2024, main discussion points across the 3 days includes cloud services, automation and ensuring financial security.  If you are a solution provider working across the public sector and can provide technological support to local government leaders, or if you are a delegate looking to improve your organisation’s digital, strategic and operational capabilities then enquire here: https://bit.ly/3IDYflY   #LocalGovSF #government #localgovernment 

How it started vs how it's going... Over the past few months, we've been working closely with Local Government. With a focus on security, affordability, and adaptability, our solutions have empowered county, district and borough councils to serve their citizens more effectively, in the face of a rapidly evolving digital landscape. We've quickly become a trusted partner, helping local government organisations to not only access essential digital services, but lay a secure foundation for future transformation. Our Tech-Enabled Managed Service combines top-tier networking expertise with a unique technology platform. There's nothing like it in the market right now. Just look how far we've come! Learn more: https://lnkd.in/eWZhyNEa #localgovernment #government #networking #cloud #psn

🚨 Salesforce’s New Top Secret Cloud for U.S. National Security! 🚨 Salesforce just launched Government Cloud Premium—a Top Secret cloud platform for U.S. national security and intelligence agencies. Built on Amazon’s Top Secret infrastructure, this platform allows rapid app development, secure data handling, and integration with advanced AI tools, all designed for fast-paced, classified missions. Why it matters: Legacy systems are slow. Government Cloud Premium lets agencies respond instantly to mission demands, making it easier to innovate, secure data, and maintain a complete mission view. This isn’t just another tool; it’s Salesforce stepping up to support the country’s most critical missions with unmatched speed, security, and innovation. 🚀 Source - https://lnkd.in/eQ9TUgrP #Salesforce #GovCloudPremium #NationalSecurity #TopSecret #CloudInnovation #DataSecurity #MissionSpeed #IntelligenceAgencies #TechForGood #DigitalTransformation

Google Cloud Public Sector Summit UK 2024 | London | 26th Nov Reserve your place today at our premier Public Sector event in the UK to access a full day of innovation, insights and inspiration on true digital transformation in the public sector. Learn from peers and experts on what the future of government can look like, and how partnerships are already being forged to harness the latest innovations to power public service to meet the needs of tomorrow. 

🚀 *Exciting Announcement!* 🚀 We are thrilled to announce that B. Online has officially partnered with Google Cloud to enhance our cloud capabilities and deliver even more powerful and scalable solutions for our clients! 🌐 *What This Means for Our Clients:* - *Enhanced Performance:* Leverage Google Cloud’s cutting-edge infrastructure for superior speed and reliability. - *Scalability:* Seamlessly scale your business operations to meet growing demands. - *Innovation:* Access to Google’s advanced AI and machine learning tools to drive innovation. - *Security:* Benefit from Google Cloud’s top-notch security measures to protect your data. This partnership marks a significant milestone for B. Online as we continue to strive towards providing the best possible services and staying ahead of the curve in the digital landscape. Stay tuned for more updates and exciting developments! #Partnership #GoogleCloud #BOnlinekw #CloudComputing #Innovation #TechNews #b2b

Google finally seems to be addressing UK Government’s Contractual Demands. #GoogleWorkspace #DataResilience #vucaworld 🇬🇧 The UK government has long insisted on keeping cloud data within UK borders for significant IT contracts making it difficult to use Google solutions - because the nearest Google data centre is in Ireland. This has often stopped the UK government from using Google, forcing them to go down a Microsoft 365 route and missing out on Google’s collaboration features.  But there have been a couple of articles in the press that shows that Google is finally looking to change that. The first is the news that Google is investing £790 million in a new data centre set to be operational by 2025.  The article says that the data centre will be on a new 33 acre site in Waltham Cross, Hertfordshire but that seems too small - most of Google’s data centres are bigger than that. There’s a smaller news story (regional press) saying that in the last few weeks of January (2024) they bought land on North Weald Airfield (near Harlow) from Epping Forest District Council. That seems more like it, but details on the size of that land isn’t apparent at the time of writing.  This is good news for users and for the UK tax payer. At the moment, the UK government pretty much has to go with Microsoft 365 but the new data centre will finally introduce competition in the shape of Google Workspace.  The other piece of the puzzle comes in the shape of Google’s new announced beta programme for Google Cloud Storage (GCS) buckets. This will allow Google Workspace administrators to specify the location of their buckets. Next year when you click the “United Kingdom” box this will in reality be “Epping Forest” or “Waltham Cross”?  You might say, “who cares” but then again who really cares where their cloud data is, so long as the access times are good? The UK government obviously does but I think they might be focussing on the wrong thing because the world is becoming a more dangerous place. The risk of a foreign power knocking out a country's key data centres has moved from “don’t be ridiculous” to “oh yes, that could be a problem”. So the really important thing when specifying cloud storage is not where it is - but what fall back capability the cloud provider has. It’ll be interesting to see what cloud providers do in response to the riskier world. Perhaps Google’s new data centre will be built in a bunker? Let’s wait and see what they build. And more worryingly, let’s wait and see when this fall back capacity starts being talked about. The picture below is Google's Atlanta data centre. Looks bigger than 33 acres to me!

Do you ever find yourself scrolling through your feed and wondering what half the accounts are and why you followed them? We thought it was time for a reintroduction. So here it goes… Hi, we’re Florbs! 👋 We’re a Google Cloud ISV partner on a mission to help organizations protect their files in Google Drive from unauthorized access. 🛡️ Our journey began with frustration: it’s so easy to share files, everyone does it every day. But why does it have to be so hard to track who has access to files and make sure information doesn’t fall into the wrong hands? 🦹♂️ So we decided to build a tool to make it easy for organizations to control file sharing. For their benefit, and the benefit of their customers and partners. Because nobody wants their sensitive data out in the open on the Internet. 🦸 Today, Florbs is trusted by many organizations — ranging from small businesses to large enterprises, local firms to multinational corporations. Our clients span from the Netherlands (our home base) to Australia. 🦘 But enough about us! Introduce yourselves in the comments, we want to know more about you! 🫵

Quick rant: the identity space is already very messy, and the Cloud Service Providers, especially Google, aren’t exactly helping. Last year, AWS introduced their new Entity Resolution service - info here: https://lnkd.in/e4cDgCfD Objectively, I thought this was really cool, and sure, they added in embedded identity from external providers because why not? Snowflake, along with identity partners like LiveRamp, set the vision for embedded identity years ago. Now, Google jumps on and offers their “entity resolution”. As I understand it, it’s not true ER, it’s just embedded identity. Info here - https://lnkd.in/evKwF72i (someone please correct me if I’m wrong) This confuses customers. Entity resolution and identity resolution shouldn’t be considered the same thing, but they’ve commonly been used interchangeably. Entity is off 1PD, Identity is when a 3rd party graph is involved. It should be as simple as that, but now it’s going to be even fuzzier. #airplanerant #identity