As of January 2017 Microsoft will increase the cost prices of their SPLA rental model. These changes will, most notably, apply to customers who purchase software on an “SPLA” or rental type model. Increases will affect customers who have Windows Operating Systems on our Dedicated Server ranges. Customers will start to see these increases apply from February 2017 onwards.
Microsoft have also increased the price rental for all Office 365 subscriptions, customers will see these prices increase for new seats from Jan 1st 2017 – but also for renewals of products throughout the next calendar year.
Easyspace are very competitive for both dedicated servers and Office 365 subscriptions – but unfortunately we have to pass these increases on this time around.
Microsoft have released the following FAQ information:
Why is Microsoft adjusting prices now?
Microsoft is announcing British pound price changes to harmonise its prices for enterprise software and cloud services within the EU/EFTA region, effective January 1, 2017. Planned changes to British pound prices are similar to recent harmonisation adjustments to pricing in Norwegian krone and Swiss franc made in April 2016. Microsoft periodically assesses the impact of its local pricing of products and services to ensure there is reasonable alignment with the market and this change is an outcome of this assessment.
Is the price increase as a result of Brexit?
Microsoft decision to adjust pricing in British pound is not a result of UK’s decision to leave the EU. However sustained currency changes have led to misalignment of British pound pricing in the region.
Microsoft is announcing British pound price changes to harmonise its prices for enterprise software and cloud services close to euro levels within the EU/EFTA region. Planned changes to British pound prices are similar to recent harmonisation adjustments to pricing in Norwegian krone and Swiss franc made in April 2016. In all cases, sustained currency changes resulted in misalignment of Microsoft’s pricing in the EU/EFTA region. This change to British pound pricing, effective January 1, 2017 is an outcome of Microsoft’s periodic assessment of the impact of its local pricing of products and services to ensure there is reasonable alignment across region.
Why not other currencies or geos?
Many factors contribute to our ongoing assessment of pricing. Previous assessments in EU/EFTA region have adjusted pricing in Norwegian krone and Swiss franc, while maintaining pricing in other regional currencies. Our recent assessment of the marketplace and resulting analysis led to the selection of British pound for this set of changes.
Why is the pricing adjustment for cloud services larger than on-premises software?
Microsoft is realigning British pound prices for both enterprise on-premises software and cloud services close to euro levels. Many factors contribute to our ongoing assessment of pricing for both on-premises and cloud, however some such as competition, cloud business models and its costs, currency rates, etc. influence cloud pricing differently. Further for this change, a 10% increase to euro cloud prices in August-2015 when British pound cloud pricing was left unchanged contributed to the higher adjustment. Even after this cloud price adjustment, customers across the region buying in British pound will still find Microsoft cloud offerings highly competitive.
