Microsoft Reduces Windows Azure Storage Price

In a move to make its Cloud platform even more appealing to customers worldwide, Microsoft announced that it’s reducing the price of Windows Azure Storage.

At the same time, the software giant introduced a discount system designed to cut costs for high-volume customers.

The new pricing strategy for Windows Azure Storage applies to Blob and Table storage according to Microsoft’s Steven Martin, and has already come into effect.

“Effective immediately, we are lowering the price of Windows Azure Storage (from $0.15 to $0.14 per GB per month.) We are also adding commitment volume discounts, which will give high-volume customers additional savings,” Martin explained.

“All Windows Azure Storage customers will automatically receive the reduced storage price effective October 26, 2011.”

Customers need to check out the graphic on the left in order to get an idea of the changes in pricing and the discounts they benefit from when using Windows Azure Storage.

According to the Redmond company, $0.14 per GB will be the price tag for storage commitments smaller than 1 TB.

As the size of the storage grows, so does the discount that Microsoft is offering, up to and even higher than 39%.

Customers will pay $0.125 per GB for a storage commitment of 1 – 50 TB/month, $0.112 per GB for 51 – 500 TB/month, $0.103 per GB for 501 – 1,000 TB/month and $0.085 GB for 1,001 TB - 5 PB/month.

“High-volume customers with regular usage are eligible for additional savings through the Storage Core Offer,” Martin added.

“Please note, the prices below are price tiers, not graduated prices. For example, if you store 400 TBs using the commitment offer your price will be $0.112 per GB per month for the full amount, not just the amount over 50TBs. For prices above 5 Petabytes per month, customers are asked to contact Microsoft for assistance.”