Microsoft has challenged its industry rivals by revealing a commitment to match Amazon on prices for the newly renamed Microsoft Azure commodity services.

Announced this morning by Steven Martin, General Manager, Microsoft Azure, Redmond is cutting prices on compute by up to 35% and storage by up to 65%.

“We recognise that economics are a primary driver for some customers adopting cloud, and stand by our commitment to match prices and be best-in-class on price performance," he wrote on the official Microsoft Azure blog.

“While price is important, and something that will continue to grab headlines, there are three key factors at play in cloud computing: innovation, price, and quality.

"Innovation and quality will prove far more important than commoditisation of compute and storage.

“Vendors will ultimately extol their track records for building and running services far more than their prices and SLAs.”

According to Martin, revealing the news via the official Microsoft Azure blog, Microsoft will continue to focus on bringing its customers a “world-class service with an unrivalled user experience”.

“This means best-in-class value while still providing the most complete cloud experience on the market,” he adds.

“It means massive investments in cutting-edge infrastructure and world-class R&D. It means continuing to grow our developer and partner ecosystems.”

Simply put, in the words of Martin, it means devoting the bulk of the company’s efforts to delivering innovation and a quality experience for its customers, developers, and partners.

For more information regarding pricing - please visit the Microsoft Azure blog