By Andrew Berg
Microsoft yesterday released pricing for its cloud-based computing platform, Windows Azure. Microsoft said it will charge 12 cents an hour for computing, 15 cents per gigabyte for storage and 10 cents per 10,000 storage transactions.
Microsoft has been aggressively pursuing the cloud and Web-based computing model in recent months as it looks to break from its boxed-software paradigm and compete with online search giant Google.
Microsoft recently announced it will be offering its Office suite in a free Web-based
version. Also directed at competing with Google, Microsoft recently rolled out its own search engine, BING.
While Microsoft's recent reinvention of its core business strategy has generally received positive commentary, analysts say it's important that the software giant seek balance in moving forward. Free cloud-based products could cut dramatically into profits from some of the company's key revenue generators, such as Word, Excel and PowerPoint.
Cloud computing is increasingly seen as the future of mobile computing, as software providers speculate that the power, functionality and sophistication of smartphone applications could be dramatically enhanced if hosted on a cloud as opposed to on the device.