Microsoft’s Changes to Business Software Terms Could Lift Its Cloud Service and Hurt AWS, Google

A change Microsoft made late last year to the terms of service for Microsoft 365, its cloud-based software that includes Word, PowerPoint and Outlook, could drive some companies that use Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud to Microsoft’s Azure cloud service, analysts said.

Under the new terms, which Microsoft disclosed in August last year and outlined in more detail last month, corporate customers will no longer be able to install and run Microsoft 365 applications while using big rival cloud providers including Amazon Web Services, Alibaba and Google. Instead, they must either purchase a license to Microsoft 365 through one of those providers, which could raise their costs, or switch to Microsoft’s own Azure service or one of the smaller cloud providers Microsoft works with, a potentially time-consuming process.