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Microsoft Azure: Cutting prices on compute and storage

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Re: Microsoft Azure: Cutting prices on compute and storage

#11

Post by jtchang »

Hate on Microsoft all you want but this is a great thing. If Microsoft feels they want to play in the infrastructure as a service game they need to earn the customer's trust.

Price matching is certainly one way to do it. Azure does run linux by the way (a lot of people don't know that).

One thing I've been going back and forth about is whether I "trust" Google App Engine or Microsoft Azure more. Both are juggernauts but Microsoft seems very intent on staying and competing in this space.

For what it's worth I've used Azure before and don't find the interface too bad. Also for spinning up the latest and greatest Windows Server instance you can't really beat Azure.

Re: Microsoft Azure: Cutting prices on compute and storage

#12

Post by euank »

yulaow wrote: post #8
lelandriordan wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes. MS said that they would match any AWS price change.

We have to hope they never form a sort of cartel or join an informal alliance. Until now we are really getting a lot of benefits due to this competition

I can't help but think that they already were in a sort of informal alliance.

It took Google dropping prices for both AWS and Azure to drop... clearly they were both skimming profits off the top for the last while.

Of course, a company does need to profit and I'm not accusing either of them of doing anything wrong, I'm just trying to say that these sorts of alliances form accidentally and naturally; both companies hit a competitive price and then hardware gets cheaper; software gets better... they could drop prices, but why cut into profits when there's no need? Inertia is a powerful force. It takes something actually happening to kick those price drops into action, generally.

Re: Microsoft Azure: Cutting prices on compute and storage

#14

Post by maaaats »

JeremyMorgan wrote: post #2

Very nice! I think Azure's biggest hurdle so far is the association with Microsoft and people assuming "well it must be expensive" only to be proven right when they sign up. That being said, some parts of Azure are pretty cheap and for small site it's affordable as it is now. You can get 10 free websites and a couple decent sized databases for around $40 a month which gives you better service and scalability than you…

Azure's pricing is great for side projects and small startups. Everything I have done so far has been free.

Re: Microsoft Azure: Cutting prices on compute and storage

#16

Post by opendomain »

I am a Microsoft fan, but they are doing the cloud all wrong. To setup Azure, you have to use silverlight. To access the servers, you use remote desktop. Microsoft office 365 is $100 PER YEAR - much more than I would pay for the full suite (over 4years of average use) If you want to use SQL server, expect to pay $$$ - and integration or reporting services are not included. There is another feature that is actually nice: if allocate one server, you get 5 extra services automatically, including active directory, block storage, and network setup. if you do not know each part of the cloud, this helps you out, but it is done the "Microsoft way" and can be confusing compared to other cloud services.

Re: Microsoft Azure: Cutting prices on compute and storage

#17

Post by yulaow »

jtchang wrote: post #11

Hate on Microsoft all you want but this is a great thing. If Microsoft feels they want to play in the infrastructure as a service game they need to earn the customer's trust. Price matching is certainly one way to do it. Azure does run linux by the way (a lot of people don't know that). One thing I've been going back and forth about is whether I "trust" Google App Engine or Microsoft Azure more. Both are juggernauts…

Also with Bizspark you can have, if I remember well, like 150E/month to spend on azure for 3 years.

Considering that almost any IT startup can access to bizspark, it is a nice thing to at least try it.

Also I love the fact they are distributing their sdks for other os (linux and osx) and that they are all opensource on github

Re: Microsoft Azure: Cutting prices on compute and storage

#18

Post by bignaj »

opendomain wrote: post #16

I am a Microsoft fan, but they are doing the cloud all wrong. To setup Azure, you have to use silverlight. To access the servers, you use remote desktop. Microsoft office 365 is $100 PER YEAR - much more than I would pay for the full suite (over 4years of average use) If you want to use SQL server, expect to pay $$$ - and integration or reporting services are not included. There is another feature that is actually ni…

Some of this just flat out isn't true... I access my Azure instances with SSH just like I did on AWS. No Remote Desktop.

Re: Microsoft Azure: Cutting prices on compute and storage

#19

Post by _delirium »

euank wrote: post #12
yulaow wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We have to hope they never form a sort of cartel or join an informal alliance. Until now we are really getting a lot of benefits due to this competition

I can't help but think that they already were in a sort of informal alliance. It took Google dropping prices for both AWS and Azure to drop... clearly they were both skimming profits off the top for the last while. Of course, a company does need to profit and I'm not accusing either of them of doing anything wrong, I'm just trying to say that these sorts of alliances form accidentally and naturally; both companies hi…

> these sorts of alliances form accidentally and naturally

The airline-ticket market is kind of fascinating to watch from that perspective. On directly competing routes major carriers often end up with the same fares and matching each others' moves, but the exact process of who leads and who follows is complex. There is all kinds of informal signalling where companies attempt to figure out the others' intentions without directly colluding. For example, a company might trial a $50 fare increase in response to increasing costs, and hope others will match it. If others don't, they might be forced to roll back the increase to avoid losing market share, admitting the trial was unsuccessful. It's in effect an offer of, "hey everyone, I think we should raise prices $50 on this route, do you match?", followed by "ok, I guess not, retracting" if they don't, but not explicit.

Re: Microsoft Azure: Cutting prices on compute and storage

#20

Post by bignaj »

yulaow wrote: post #17
jtchang wrote: post #11

Hate on Microsoft all you want but this is a great thing. If Microsoft feels they want to play in the infrastructure as a service game they need to earn the customer's trust. Price matching is certainly one way to do it. Azure does run linux by the way (a lot of people don't know that). One thing I've been going back and forth about is whether I "trust" Google App Engine or Microsoft Azure more. Both are juggernauts…

Also with Bizspark you can have, if I remember well, like 150E/month to spend on azure for 3 years. Considering that almost any IT startup can access to bizspark, it is a nice thing to at least try it. Also I love the fact they are distributing their sdks for other os (linux and osx) and that they are all opensource on github

You can also get free access to Azure with a MSDN subscription which is nice for those who have one :)
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