Cloud giant Microsoft has announced that it will soon put up the costs of certain offerings in the United Kingdom. The shock announcement means that UK cloud consumers will be forced to pay 22% more for the corporation’s cloud products and services starting 1 January 2017. Microsoft, which has headquarters in Redmond, Washington, United States, made the decision due the falling value of the British Pound. The UK’s currency has seen a significant decline in its value since the country’s decision to leave the European Union (EU) on June 23, 2016, a move widely known as ‘Brexit’. The Pound has fallen 18% in value since Brexit was announced.
By leaving the EU, the UK leaves one of the biggest trading blocs in the world. Known as the ‘European Single Market’ it is made up of the economies of 28 countries including Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, and until ‘Brexit’ is formalised, the United Kingdom.
“From January, British pound prices for on-premises enterprise software will increase by 13% to realign close to euro levels,” explained Microsoft in a press release. Most enterprise cloud prices in British pounds will increase by 22% to realign close to euro levels.” The press release went on though to suggest that despite the increase, Microsoft’s cloud offerings remain good value. “Even after this adjustment, customers across the region buying in British pound will still find our cloud offerings highly competitive.”
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