This Monday, Microsoft announced that it would be matching the cloud pricing from Amazon web services. Not only would virtual servers receive a 35% price cut, but storage would receive up to a 65% cut, effective after May 1. Microsoft has also announced plans to add a new tier of basic virtual servers — these will be 27% cheaper than standard.

Amazon made similar cuts to their services several days before, prompting many to wonder whether Microsoft would continually maintain a “match the leader” cloud hosting outlook considering that both Amazon and Google have been continually implementing sharp price cuts in an effort to sweep the market. Amazon, for its part, will be dropping the prices on many popular servers. Its M3 general-purpose server dropped 38% in price.

A Boon for Small Business

Many small businesses will be happy to eliminate even more costs from their overhead as prices for cloud solutions continue to drop, rather than go up. Indeed, the tide seems to have fully turned for cloud this year, pushing the technology to the forefront as a real and viable solution for companies of all sizes. Previously, cloud was present but still in the background of more standard and traditional options for data storage and software usage.

IBM Shrugs Shoulders

IBM SoftLayer CEO Lance Crosby has been fairly dismissive of the competition from Amazon and Google. He claims that both companies are essentially maxing out their infrastructure, hosting more customers without actually increasing capacity. “The financial benefit will be erased by the performance degradation, leaving the customer at status quo,” he explained.

According to a recent report by Barrons, although it’s obvious cloud providers are aggressively pursuing new customers while the market is still young, it’s also important to note that the cloud solutions battle concerns picking up mobile and web application developers.

Cisco, a Future Competitor for Cloud Solutions

Cisco was a late player to enter the cloud computing solutions race, but this week the hardware giant announced its own plans to spend a billion dollars developing a cloud platform for its customers. Like many other companies in the industry, Cisco has finally seen the writing on the walls and realized that it spells inevitable revenue decline for companies focused on hardware sales alone.

It’s likely that, as the technological outlook on server hosting and data storage continues to change, cloud solution providers will see even more business than ever before. Does your company invest in cloud? Let us know in the comments. See this link for more: local.cbeyond.com