#cloud platforms

The UK’s competition regulator has launched a broad antitrust investigation into Microsoft’s business software ecosystem, opening a new front in growing regulatory scrutiny of how cloud platforms, productivity software, and embedded AI capabilities may affect competition in enterprise technology markets. UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said in a statement that it had opened a Strategic Market Status (SMS) investigation into Microsoft’s business software operations under the country’s new digital markets regime. The regulator said it will assess whether Microsoft has “substantial and entrenched market power” and a “position of strategic significance” in business software markets. “The investigation will assess whether Microsoft is using its position in business software to limit competition in cloud services, cybersecurity, communications, and AI,” the regulator said in a statement. The case is the fourth strategic market status (SMS) investigation the regulator has opened

Enterprise environments are changing quickly as organizations adopt cloud platforms, automated infrastructure, and continuous delivery pipelines. Software updates are released more often, and systems are set up automatically using infrastructure-as-code automation tools. While this acceleration allows organizations to deliver software and services faster, it also creates new challenges for security teams responsible for protecting constantly changing systems. Today’s enterprise security teams must defend environments that are dynamic, distributed, and difficult to fully observe. As organizations adopt new platforms and development practices, the attack surface grows. Security teams must detect and respond to threats across these environments while maintaining clear visibility into what is happening in real time. Traditional security testing models were not designed for this pace of change. Organizations have long relied on penetration tests and red team engagements to simulate real att