Fair Principle 5: Contractual terms shall not restrict or discriminate for customer’s choice of cloud provider, outsourcing partner or hardware platform

Fair Principle 5: Contractual terms shall not restrict or discriminate for customer’s choice of cloud provider, outsourcing partner or hardware platform

2022-07-28 NB Fair Principles 05B7/28/22, 8:00 AM

Business users associations Beltug, Voice, Cigref and CIO Platform Nederland call for a balanced cloud market: 11 fair principles to unleash Europe’s digital potential. Fair principle 5 calls for contractual terms to not restrict or discriminate for customer’s choice of cloud provider, outsourcing partner or hardware platform.

Software is the driving force behind open innovation and digital transformation. As a result, each company has become wholly or partly a software company. In the past, every organization had an IT department, now every department has an IT organization. Software has become mainstream. Software can be built or purchased ready-made, software can run on various hardware that may or may not be set up inside or outside the company premises, while those systems can be managed by the company itself or by third parties.

Today business software and cloud services providers are present everywhere and occupy a dominant position. A responsible leadership attitude towards the customer should be applied:

  • Customers having purchased or purchasing software, shall have the possibility to deploy and use the software on the platform of choice or with the cloud provider of choice. The terms and conditions, including commercial conditions, shall be non-discriminating and uniform between running workload in the cloud, on premise or in any hybrid setup with comparable workload and performance. If the technology and workload is comparable and common, the customer shall have freedom of choice.
  • Customers who are moving on premise workload to cloud providers should achieve a cost neutral shift that safeguards the investment on comparable performance and workload. Cloud infrastructure has the same or comparable computing power and has the same limitations as on premise workload, with the sole exception that the underlying hardware is owned by a third party.
  • Customers should not be at the mercy of the vendor for what they can use and should be free to run a service elsewhere. Neither software vendor nor cloud provider should limit or block this freedom of choice.

Business software and cloud services vendors should therefore comply with the fifth principle; contractual terms shall not restrict or discriminate for customer’s choice of cloud provider, outsourcing partner or hardware platform.

« Back

More news

What if no new management assistants graduate in five years' time?

2023-09-12  Blog Judith van der Kolk9/18/23, 12:00 PM Times are changing. But who then makes the complex appointments, who makes sure the agenda is correct, who is the person in the background who arranges everything? Read more in the current blog by Judith van der Kolk from Spaarne hospital. full story

Take care of an Enterprise Architect; How an Enterprise Architect unburdens and provides

2021-05-25 Mailing terugkoppeling SAM.png9/11/23, 4:17 PM ''Great, Enterprise Architect! Probably interesting and important, but what do you actually do?'' For many people, it's a pretty abstract role, not always easy to place. Fortunately, I have my elevator pitch ready! full story

Urgent call on the EC to also designate the major cloud providers as gatekeepers under the DMA

2023-01-17 NB Grijp de kansen in het nieuwe digitale landschap!9/8/23, 5:42 PM Urgent call on the European Commission to also designate the major cloud providers as gatekeepers under the DigitalMarketsAct (DMA) to ensure additional obligations. full story

Our four priorities for the next Cabinet

2023-08-24 Our four priorities for the next Cabinet8/24/23, 3:15 PM With the fall of the Cabinet at the last minute before the summer recess, the elections are suddenly a lot closer than anticipated. CIO Platform Netherlands has shared its four priorities for the Netherlands to become a forerunner in the use of people-centric digital technologies and innovations with the political parties. full story

View all news items through the archive

Close