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Microsoft Cuts Prices on Some Azure Services
Microsoft announced price cuts to some of its Azure cloud services today.
About 61 Azure services now are available at reduced prices, provided that organizations order those services through Microsoft's Web site, according to Microsoft's announcement. The announcement promised even lower prices for Azure customers with Enterprise Agreements.
Microsoft lists the new price reductions at this page. While the price cuts are billed by Microsoft as being in effect now, the list page states that the prices will go down on Oct. 1, 2014.
Azure prices are supposed to decrease as Microsoft expands its datacenter capacity and its customer base in a commodification kind of strategy. Another motivation for price cuts is competition with Amazon Web Services, which prompted Microsoft to scale back Azure prices in April.
In August, a GigaOM story noted that Microsoft had quietly ended discounts for new Azure customers that ranged from 20 percent to 32 percent, based on commitments of six months or 12 months. The discounts apparently ended after July 16, but no notice or explanation was given by Microsoft, according to the GigaOM story.
Microsoft now offers Open licensing for its Azure services, an option that started in August, according to a Microsoft spokesperson, via e-mail.
About the Author
Kurt Mackie is senior news producer for 1105 Media's Converge360 group.