Brussels, 18 July 2025 – The Cloud Infrastructure Services Providers in Europe (CISPE), representing leading European cloud providers, has reached a landmark agreement with Microsoft that will further reform licensing terms for Microsoft software operating on CISPE member’s European cloud infrastructure.
Under the terms of this agreement, Microsoft will enable qualified CISPE members to offer Microsoft software to their customers on a pay-as-you-go basis via the CSP-Hoster (CSP-H) program – with stronger privacy for customers of European cloud providers. This will produce pricing conditions more comparable to those of Microsoft’s own cloud platform, Azure.
Key benefits for qualified CISPE members after our settlement with Microsoft include:
- Pricing Benefits: CISPE 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. This comes in addition to the Flexible Virtualization Benefit already offered to CSP-H partners.
- Sovereign Cloud Enablement: Microsoft 365 Local will allow deploying on local cloud infrastructure, taking a further step toward true digital sovereignty for European customers. CISPE members may access this offering if made generally available in Microsoft’s Cloud Solution Program (CSP).
- Customer Privacy Benefit: CISPE members can now host Microsoft workloads as pay-as-you-go for their customers on independent European infrastructure without sharing customer details with Microsoft – addressing a core concern raised by CISPE.
The agreement opens the program to current CISPE members and eligible European cloud providers who join CISPE in the coming months. Microsoft has committed to reviewing the program’s effectiveness in its first year, with the potential to expand access thereafter.
Importantly, the program remains closed to hyperscale cloud providers designated by Microsoft as “Listed Providers”, preserving its goal to support competition and innovation in the European digital ecosystem by strengthening European cloud providers.
“The agreement we reached with Microsoft marks a significant breakthrough in our long-standing efforts to ensure a level playing field,” said Francisco Mingorance, Secretary General of CISPE. “For enterprise customers, the new programs directly address previous concerns of CISPE members and empowers European enterprises to choose among a wide range of cloud solutions that meet their sovereignty, compliance, and economic needs.”
Microsoft may provide its own commentary on this announcement.
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For further information please contact:
Ben Maynard
Director of Communications, CISPE
Ben.maynard@cispe.cloud +44 (0) 7968 537982