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The Open Cloud Coalition (OCC) launched in Brussels and the U.K. on October 28–29, 2024, with 10 founding members including Google Cloud and several smaller European providers. It says it wants more open standards, interoperability, transparency and competition in cloud computing. Microsoft immediately disputed the coalition’s independence, alleging that Google organized and funded an “astroturf” campaign against Azure.
The OCC is a real industry advocacy group—not a cloud platform, regulator or technical standards body. The unresolved issue is how much of its agenda reflects the shared interests of smaller providers and customers, and how much reflects Google’s commercial dispute with Microsoft.
What the Open Cloud Coalition is
The OCC is a lobbying and policy-advocacy organization focused on cloud-market competition. Its stated geographic scope covers the U.K., the European Union and broader international markets.
At launch, the coalition said it would conduct cloud-market research, engage competition authorities, participate in consultations and advocate for fairer access to cloud infrastructure. Its public mission emphasizes:
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- Open standards and interoperability
- Flexible access to cloud services
- Lower switching barriers
- Greater transparency and competition
- Security, reliability and resilience
- A stronger voice for smaller cloud providers and customers
The group should not be confused with a regulator or a new commercial cloud provider. “Open cloud” is the coalition’s policy concept, not a universally adopted technical specification.
Who founded it?
The launch announcement named 10 members:
- Google Cloud
- Centerprise International
- Civo
- Gigas
- ControlPlane
- DTP Group
- Prolinx
- Pulsant
- Clairo
- Room 101
Nicky Stewart of Civo was identified as leading the coalition at launch. The membership was not evenly matched in size or market power: Google Cloud was the prominent hyperscaler, while most of the other founding organizations were smaller or regional infrastructure providers.
In December 2024, the OCC announced five additional members—Adarga, BlackBox Hosting, Dark Matter, DataVita and National Cloud—bringing its reported membership to 15 companies. That growth shows the coalition continued beyond its launch announcement, but it does not by itself prove that the group is independent of Google or representative of the entire cloud industry.
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The OCC’s launch announcement describes its original membership and objectives, while its membership update covers the later expansion.
Why Microsoft challenged the coalition
Microsoft responded immediately. In an October 28, 2024 post, Deputy General Counsel Rima Alaily called the OCC an “astroturf” organization and alleged that Google had created, recruited for and funded it to influence European regulators against Microsoft.
Those statements are Microsoft’s allegations, not established findings by a regulator or court. The OCC publicly presents itself as a coalition of multiple companies, and the available launch materials do not independently establish the extent of Google’s financial or operational control.
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Microsoft also alleged that Google had offered members of the Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE) approximately $500 million in cash and cloud credits to reject a settlement with Microsoft. Contemporary reporting described the figure as roughly €470 million. Because the figures differ and originate from attributed claims, neither amount should be presented as an independently verified fact.
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Microsoft’s account is set out in its statement about Google’s alleged “shadow campaigns”. Independent launch-era coverage is available from TechCrunch.
The licensing dispute behind the launch
The coalition emerged from a wider fight over how Microsoft licenses software for use on rival cloud infrastructure.
Cloud providers and customers may need to run Microsoft products outside Azure for reasons including price, resilience, procurement rules, data location or a multicloud strategy. Providers in the Microsoft–CISPE dispute argued that Microsoft’s licensing arrangements could make that more expensive or difficult than using Microsoft software on Azure.
Microsoft and CISPE members reached a resolution in July 2024. The settlement included commitments intended to improve the ability of smaller cloud providers to offer Microsoft software. AWS was not included in the settlement described in contemporary reporting.
CISPE later created the European Cloud Competition Observatory to monitor Microsoft’s commitments and broader software-licensing practices. CISPE and the OCC are separate organizations:
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| Organization | Role |
|---|---|
| Open Cloud Coalition | A newer advocacy group launched with Google Cloud and smaller providers. |
| CISPE | An established European cloud-provider association that pursued the earlier Microsoft licensing complaint and later settled. |
| Microsoft | The Azure operator and software licensor defending its licensing model and settlement. |
| Google Cloud | A Microsoft competitor and OCC founding member that filed its own European complaint. |
| AWS | A major hyperscaler associated with CISPE but not part of the settlement described in launch coverage. |
What Google alleged
Google separately complained to the European Commission about Microsoft’s licensing practices. Google’s position, as described in launch-era coverage, was that Microsoft’s terms could make it more costly or restrictive to run Microsoft products on rival clouds, encouraging customers to remain on Azure.
That complaint, CISPE’s earlier complaint and the OCC’s lobbying campaign are related but distinct matters:
- CISPE’s complaint: focused on Microsoft’s licensing practices and ended in the July 2024 settlement.
- Google’s complaint: was a separate challenge to Microsoft’s licensing model.
- The OCC’s advocacy: seeks broader policy changes involving competition, interoperability and open standards.
The available launch sources establish complaints and competing allegations. They do not establish a final European Commission finding that Microsoft violated competition law.
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Why smaller cloud providers joined
For a smaller provider, access to widely used enterprise software can be commercially important. Customers may want local support, jurisdiction-specific hosting, specialized services or an alternative to relying entirely on a hyperscaler. But those choices are less meaningful if software licensing makes the alternative uneconomic.
Cloud lock-in can involve more than one technical feature. It may arise from:
- Proprietary APIs and managed services
- Data-transfer or egress charges
- Re-engineering workloads for another provider
- Microsoft software licensing restrictions
- Identity, security, monitoring and support dependencies
- Minimum-spend commitments and renewal terms
- Compliance and data-residency requirements
Smaller providers therefore have an incentive to support rules that reduce licensing and switching barriers. Google has an incentive too: making rival infrastructure more attractive could create additional opportunities for Google Cloud, even if Google’s public argument is framed around market-wide competition.
Is the OCC independent?
The most defensible answer is that its independence is contested and not resolved by the launch materials.
Evidence that supports treating it as a standalone coalition includes its public membership, separate website, stated mission and planned research and regulatory engagement. Evidence that raises questions includes Google Cloud’s position as the most prominent founding member, Microsoft’s allegations about organization and funding, and the reported involvement of DGA Group in recruitment.
Launch-era reporting also said individual member contributions were not initially disclosed, with funding expected to become available through the EU Transparency Register. That means readers should distinguish between:
- Membership: Google publicly joined the coalition.
- Support: Google may have supported the group’s creation or activities.
- Control: whether Google directs governance or policy.
- Funding: how much each member contributes.
These are different questions. Calling the OCC “Google-backed” is supported by Google’s membership and Microsoft’s allegations, but it does not automatically prove that Google controls or primarily funds the organization.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How to assess the coalition’s claims
The OCC is an interested stakeholder, not a neutral authority. Its research and submissions should be assessed using the same scrutiny applied to Microsoft’s and Google’s public arguments.
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- Are the underlying data and methodology public?
- Does the analysis distinguish hyperscalers from smaller providers?
- Does it separate technical interoperability from licensing interoperability?
- Does it measure actual switching costs or only describe them?
- Does it account for security, performance, support and compliance costs?
- Does it compare Microsoft’s practices with Google’s and AWS’s own licensing and egress policies?
- Are recommendations aimed at all cloud providers or primarily at Microsoft?
- Do the members represent customers, providers, Microsoft rivals or some combination?
A policy position can be legitimate while still serving its members’ commercial interests. Those facts are not mutually exclusive.
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What the dispute means for cloud customers
For enterprises and public-sector buyers, the practical question is not simply whether a coalition is independent. It is whether market rules and contracts leave the buyer with credible alternatives.
Customers evaluating cloud arrangements should examine:
- Which applications depend on proprietary services or APIs
- How much data can be moved, at what cost and in what timeframe
- Whether Microsoft, Google or other software licenses change on rival infrastructure
- How identity, security and monitoring would work after a migration
- Contract renewal, minimum-spend and termination provisions
- Data-residency and regulatory requirements
- The support and resilience differences between local providers and hyperscalers
Greater portability can reduce lock-in, but it may also limit the benefits of provider-specific optimization. Regulation can address genuine barriers, yet rigid rules could affect software economics, security models or service design. Smaller providers may need relief that does not apply in the same way to Google, Microsoft or AWS.
What happened after launch?
The OCC expanded from 10 reported members at launch to 15 after its December 2024 announcement. Its subsequent publications continued to address cloud concentration, software licensing and competition.
That continued activity makes the OCC more than a one-day press announcement. It still does not settle the central political question: whether the coalition is a broad, independent market voice or a Google-supported vehicle that gives a Microsoft competitor a public platform.
The OCC’s own later publications should be read as the coalition’s analysis and policy positions, not as independent evidence. Readers should also distinguish the group’s work from the separate monitoring activity conducted by CISPE’s observatory.
Bottom line
The Open Cloud Coalition launched in Europe and the U.K. in October 2024 with Google Cloud and nine smaller or regional providers. It advocates open standards, interoperability, competition and fewer barriers to switching between clouds.
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1Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute2Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors3Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesMicrosoft’s claim that Google created an “astroturf” lobbying operation is a serious but attributed allegation, not an adjudicated fact. The coalition is real, but its independence and representativeness remain questions of governance, funding and evidence. The most useful way to understand the dispute is as three connected battles—CISPE’s settlement with Microsoft, Google’s separate European complaint and the OCC’s broader policy campaign—not as one completed antitrust case.
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