A consortium of European cloud organisations has drawn a line under its long-running dispute with Microsoft after striking a deal it says delivers “landmark licensing reform” for its members.

Cloud Infrastructure Providers in Europe (CISPE) said the deal means European cloud providers will be able to offer Microsoft on a pay as you go basis that is comparable to Azure, and offer “bring your own license” support.

It frees up the organisation to fight other battles, including tackling the mayhem Broadcom’s licensing changes on VMware have wreaked through the industry.

CISPE first filed a complaint with the European Commission over Microsoft’s licensing practices back in 2022. Last year, CISPE and Microsoft reached a Memorandum of Understanding to address the complaint.

That deal included an agreement to release “an enhanced version of Azure Stack HCI” for European Cloud providers, and the creation of an independent European Cloud Observatory to monitor progress. CISPE agree to withdraw its complaint.

But things took a rocky turn back in February, with CISPE accusing Microsoft of simply pushing an existing Azure product at its members. Microsoft in turn claimed CISPE had misunderstood the Memorandum of Understanding and demanding out of scope additions.

However, understanding appears to have broken out again, with this week’s agreement.

CISPE said its members will gain access to “Pay-As-You-Go licensing models including Windows Server and SQL Server at competitive pricing that is comparable to Azure.”

CISPE members will be able to host pay as you go workloads, without sharing customer details with Microsoft.

It also flagged that its members will be able to access Microsoft 365 Local, announced last month, “if made generally available in Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Program (CSP).

Microsoft did not concede on every CISPE demand. It will not offer Windows 10/11 VDI multi-session on European owned multi-tenant infrastructure. And it will not remove technical tying between Entra ID/Azure Active Directory and Microsoft 365.

CISPE director of communications Ben Maynard told us it had “negotiated hard with Microsoft…you can’t get everything.”

But he said PAYG and BYOL were major wins for the organisation, it had achieved the vast majority of its goals, and it was prepared to draw a line under the dispute.

Now that Microsoft is out of the way, CISPE can turn to its members other problems, he said. And the biggest of these is Broadcom. “I suspect we’ll continue to look in detail at Broadcom,” Maynard said.

Broadcom’s takeover of VMware and subsequent licensing changes have sent shockwaves through suppliers and customers alike.

Maynard confirmed that it would consider a complaint to the European Commission about Broadcom’s changes.

Lars Johnson, General Manager of Business Planning at Microsoft, said in a statement, “By working closely with CISPE and our European partner community, we strive to innovate our products, business models, and strengthen our opportunities together.”

The CISPE/Microsoft detente was not universally welcomed.

Mark Boost, CEO at UK-based cloud firm CIVO said it appeared the concessions appeared to only apply to CISPE members, “with no clarity on whether other cloud providers across Europe will benefit.”

He added, “From Microsoft to Broadcom, we’re seeing a pattern of behaviour where licensing practices consistently undermine competition and restrict market access.”

In the absence of EU action, Boost said, “The UK’s CMA investigation next month has a vital opportunity to set a new precedent, one where competition isn’t optional and cloud users aren’t trapped by the very infrastructure they depend on.”

The North America-based Coalition for Fair Software Licensing, said Microsoft’s stalling had bought it more time to lock in customers.

“This is more smoke and mirrors from Microsoft: offer weak concessions in an attempt to avoid regulatory scrutiny and disingenuously pretend these actions promote European competition,” it said.