Enterprise pricing for Azure cloud still unclear

Computerworld - Microsoft Corp. released most of the pricing schemes for its upcoming Azure cloud computing platform earlier this month, but it's still unclear how the service will be integrated into the long-term contracts the software vendor signs with its corporate customers.

Doug Hauger, a Microsoft general manager, said that the company hopes to offer details of its plan for enterprise Azure contracts in November.

"We'll make sure it's integrated into enterprise agreements and not complicated," Hauger said. "It will be just another page in the agreement. We want simplicity in how we license and [provide] access."

Azure promises to offer access to an operating system and a set of developer services hosted on Microsoft servers.

Analysts noted that the company has already had problems integrating other hosted products, like the Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), into corporate contracts.

For example, companies purchasing a BPOS subscription to allow employees to access only those hosted services must also purchase client access licenses for those users, even though they are not accessing on-premises software. said Paul DeGroot, an analyst at Directions on Microsoft. "With Azure," he added, "it could get even more complicated."

This version of this story originally appeared in Computerworld's print edition.

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