Microsoft announces changes after cloud computing complaints

Microsoft, which had been fined 1.6 billion euros ($1.7 billion) by EU antitrust regulators, will revise its licensing terms and allow cloud service providers to better compete in response to complaints, its president Brad Smith said on Wednesday.

The company was taking the first step but not the last to address the concerns, Smith told a conference organised by think tank Bruegel in Brussels.

Microsoft wants to listen and act on the complaints, he said.

"It really starts by giving more options to European cloud providers. So if there's a company that has a data center but wants to run solutions in its cloud PBX data center, we're creating more options for them to do so with our software, because that's what they've been asking for," he said.

Smith said the changes include allowing cloud service providers to offer Windows as a complete deskstop operating system, providing longer-term price protection and revising licensing terms.

The company found itself on the EU competition enforcer's radar again after German software provider NextCloud, France's OVHcloud and two other companies filed complaints about Microsoft's cloud practices.