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Pretty much every cloud software or infrastructure pricing article this publication has ever penned has announced the news of lower prices. Google in particular continues to strenuously follow Moore’s Law, the latest being back in May when Compute Engine instance prices were slashed.
This time, however, it’s different: Microsoft is revising its cloud prices, with customers in Europe and Australia most likely to suffer price hikes. The news originally broke through blogger Aidan Finn, who wrote that effective August 1, local prices for Azure and Azure Marketplace will increase by 13% in the Eurozone, while in Australia that number rises to 26%.
On the surface, this news is not particularly surprising. The Euro in particular has predictably been hit hard in recent months. Back in August it was worth $1.36 US dollars. Since then, it hit a low of $1.05 in March, and is now at $1.11.
Yet Finn argues this may not be the only reason for the increases. “One has to wonder about the motivation of the hikes,” he wrote. “Local costs have not increase[d] by this amount. If anything, local costs have probably reduced.
“This would appear to be a bottom line operation to restore profits in the ledger for shareholders to see,” he added.
According to a statement Microsoft sent to The Register, cloud prices are being revised for contracts billed in the Euro, Australian dollar, as well as Norway, Sweden, Denmark and Canada. Azure customers can still acquire Microsoft products or renew their contracts at current prices until July 31.
The move towards lower pricing has been a continued rigmarole for the past couple of years, from Amazon Web Services, to Microsoft and to Google. Whether the other two major players follow suit, like they normally do on price cuts, remains to be seen. Finn added a further update on July 7 noting Office 365 prices will also be increasing as of August 1. All stock keeping units are rising 10%, except for the E3 and E4 enterprise plans which rise 8%, while the Enterprise Mobility Suite will rise 26%.
