LUCAMEA survey of businesses in the United States has found that running Microsoft applications on cloud platforms other than Azure costs noticeably more, largely because of how Microsoft structures its licensing. The extra cost effectively steers customers towards Azure even when a competing cloud might otherwise be a better fit.
What this means for your business
If your business uses Microsoft 365, Teams, or any other Microsoft software and you're wondering whether to shop around for cloud hosting, this is worth knowing about. The licensing terms mean you'd likely pay a premium to run those apps on AWS or Google Cloud rather than Azure, which limits your options more than most people realise. It's worth having a proper look at your Microsoft agreements before making any infrastructure decisions, because the headline cloud price isn't the whole picture.