Azure price slash targets AWS

By:  Dann Anthony Maurno

In a very aggressive move, one likely aimed at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft has announced tiered price cuts for Azure. As of October 1, Microsoft lowered prices on some of its most popular virtual machines (VMs).

Whatever it does to AWS, this should enable partners hosting Dynamics GP and NAV on Azure to lower their price points. Or perhaps to make the move to Azure to begin with. An informal MSDynamicsWorld poll run earlier this year found that 51 percent of partners found Azure “Too expensive, not cost effective,” while another 35 percent found it expensive enough to limit its use. With “unfavorable ratings” of 86 percent, a dramatic move like this may be aimed at clearing Azure’s too-pricy image.

Microsoft’s Corporate VP of Cloud and Enterprise Takeshi Numoto summarized the new pricing on the company’s Azure blog:

  • General Purpose Instances: Prices of the Dv2 series VMs will be reduced by up to 15 percent; Microsoft is also lowering prices of its A1 and A2 Basic VMs by up to 50 percent.
  • Compute Optimized Instances: Prices of its F series will be reduced up to 11 percent.
  • Av2 series: In November 2016, the company will introduce new A series virtual machines (Av2), with prices up to 36% lower than the A series Standard VM prices available today.

Numoto clarified:

In case you’re not familiar with our VM categories, A series VMs are our entry-level compute tier. Dv2 series VMs are our general-purpose tier, with more memory and local SSD storage than A series. F series VMs provide an even higher CPU-to-memory ratio with a lower price than the Dv2 series.

Finally, for customers using Windows Server with Software Assurance, Numoto pointed those customers to the Microsoft Azure Hybrid Use Benefit, which the company claims can help you run Windows Server workloads at 41% lower cost.

 

About Dann Anthony Maurno

Dann Anthony Maurno is a seasoned business journalist who began his career as International Marketing Manager with Lilly Software, then moved on as a freelancer to write for such prestigious clients as CFO Magazine; Compliance Week;Manufacturing Business Technology; Decision Resources, Inc.; The Economist Intelligence Unit; and corporate clients such as Iron Mountain, Microsoft and SAP. He is the co-author of Thin Air: How Wireless Technology Supports Lean Initiatives(CRC/Productivity Press, 2010).

Dann can be reached at dmaurno@guidepointmedia.com.