Microsoft will make adjustments to Azure pricing in British pound (22% increase)

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/10/23/microsoft-to-lift-prices-up-to-22pc-over-falling-pound/

by nbevans • 10 years ago

44 31 10 years ago

telegraph.co.uk

Bombthecat• 10 years ago

I know a ton of IT firms which moved from Germany to UK because of less job protection there and less hassle to work 24/7. I wonder how they will react now for the upcoming price increases everywhere and probably UK leaving the EU.

pawadu• 10 years ago

less hassle to work 24/7

what does that mean?

adwww• 10 years ago

Presumably the UK's opt out of Working Time Directive - http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/observatories/eurwork/article...

arethuza2• 10 years ago

Probably easier to 'persuade' employees to work longer hours in the UK than in Germany.

shubb3• 10 years ago

If they are billing customers in euros or dollars, the azure price stays the same - it's gone up because the pound has gone down.

UK wages in pounds will probably stay the same, so for an international customer the price of labor here will go down by 20%.

The losers are people here who are going to watch food and utilities prices increase much faster than their wages.

taspeotis• 10 years ago

Previous discussion [1]

    Microsoft to raise some UK prices by up to 22 percent over Brexit (engadget.com)
    10 points by benjyclay 37 days ago

[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12777877

MichaelBurge• 10 years ago

I would expect people to buy data centers and hardware by borrowing money. These loans should be denominated in British Pounds in Britain. So if anything, it seems like Microsoft should be getting a great deal since their debt is being inflated away.

No reason not to raise the prices if the market will bear it, but I wonder if Brexit is actually a great help to their short-term profit margin?

tobltobs• 10 years ago

Pick one possible advantage ("should be denominated in British Pounds") and discard all obvious disadvantages (energy costs, rent)?

arethuza2• 10 years ago

For many UK customers of cloud services actually having the data centres in the UK is perceived as a rather important requirement.

rcarmo• 10 years ago

Someone should coin the term "Brexit effect". Everything is quickly becoming more expensive in he UK.

tomtoise• 10 years ago

I prefer #BrexitBritain myself. Nice play on the whole #BrokenBritain hashtag.

neverminder• 10 years ago

Or #GreatBrexitain

XzetaU8• 10 years ago

Tell that to Google

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/2016/11/15/google-to-c...

k-mcgrady2• 10 years ago

Things are likely going to be a lot less regulated in the UK in 5 years. I'd guess that's why Google is increasing it's presence.

pawelwentpawel• 10 years ago

Apple raising prices too. Food is more getting more expensive. I wonder, maybe naively, if all of the consumer prices will go up (over?)-compensating for the change in GBP could we expect workers demanding higher salaries in the near future too?

Also, recently pound has gone up (from 1.11 against euro to 1.19 now). It's definitely not the pre-brexit state but imagine it slowly crawls up back. Would you expect the price increases, in some time, to roll back?

pjc50• 10 years ago

could we expect workers demanding higher salaries in the near future too?

How?

The wedge is already driven between skilled professionals who can compete on the international market, and therefore have price-setting ability, versus people who have no market power and can be squeezed and threatened with the unemployment regime. Unskilled or marginal workers may end up starving.

No, this is the Greece effect. Trade balance has been terrible for years. Now the financial services industry is under threat. While there's a lot of negative things you could say about them, at least they've brought in foreign money to keep the accounts balanced. In order for the balance of trade to recover, imports have to fall. This means that the part of your living standards which depends on imports (including Azure) is going to fall.

dageshi2• 10 years ago

We've been in a period of very low inflation for the past 2-3 years, current inflation rate is about 1%, I'm guessing we might spike as high as 3% maybe from currency depreciation? It's not the end of the world.

TheOtherHobbes• 10 years ago

It's likely to go much higher, because the UK imports a lot more than it produces.

And unlike countries that can export home-grown food and/or raw materials, most UK exports are the end of a long supply chain that starts outside the country.

So even on exports, its margins are a lot lower than those of countries that produce raw materials and food.

Brexit will make this worse.

The UK can't continue like this indefinitely (it's not the hegemon, like the US) because when you spend more than you earn you have to make up the difference by borrowing money or devaluing your own currency.

The consequences are predictable - prices rise, inflation rises, the cycle repeats, and eventually the economy breaks down altogether after sovereign default becomes a real threat.

At that point the UK will either have to go full North Korea, or will need to strip everyone of their savings, raise taxes - and will still need a bailout.

Having "taken back sovereignty" the country will be on the hook to the banks for decades.

blibble• 10 years ago

what's inflation? less than 1%

way below the bank of england's target of 2%

deviate_X• 10 years ago

It's not just tech good which are getting ~20% price increases but general goods like food, DIY, curtain and everything really, as companies start restocking they have no choices but to increase prices.

gregjwild2• 10 years ago

heh.

The UK government has a lot of infra based on Azure. The MOD and NHS for starters.

Smooth. Very smooth. Another indicator that the rabid, vulgar libertarians in the Brexiteer ranks are more than happy to use Brexit to strain public services more in order to justify private services.

Man oh man am I glad to be paid in dollars working remotely for a US company right now.

shubb3• 10 years ago

And imagine the inducements they must have offered MS to build a datacenter here.

UK.gov actually has a semi-inhouse cloud called Crown Hosting that might win new business from Azure. They don't offer the functionality needed to produce an infrastructure that adapts to load but that doesn't matter - gov clients don't really get cloud and typically want static computer systems duplicating an on prem infrastructure without the support costs.

Microsoft will make adjustments to Azure pricing in British pound (22% increase)

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