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Microsoft Raises UK Cloud, Software Prices 22% After Brexit-Fuelled Pound Drop (techweekeurope.co.uk)
Reader Mickeycaskill writes: Microsoft is to substantially increase its prices for software and cloud services prices offered in British pounds in order to accommodate the sharp drop in the currency against the US dollar in recent weeks. Beginning in January 2017 on-premises enterprise software prices will go up by 13 percent and most enterprise cloud prices will increase by 22 percent, bringing them into line with euro prices. Microsoft said it isn't planning to change its prices for consumer software and cloud services. The value of the pound has fallen by about 18 percent since the EU referendum on 23 June.
Apparently these things happen even with much larger volume fiat currencies as well.
The pound is the most mismanaged currency on the planet.
Britain fixed it's problem with unfunded civil service pensions by taking them 'off budget', accounting tricks.
Getting the Pound completely untangled from the Euro makes it an even better currency canary.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Only enterprise software, and not consumer software and cloud services? I think maybe Brexit is a pretense here.
That will sure punish the Brits for wanting to preserve their own sovereignty. Any indication that you resist the New World Order must be punished. It would serve them right if they moved to Linux and open source solutions wherever they could and ended up paying Microsoft a lot less rather than a lot more.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
You stupid USians don't know what's going to hit you when Microsoft finds out that you illegally broke away from the EU 240 years ago!
AntiFA: An abbreviation for Anti First Amendment.
All they're doing is following the exchange rate for the British pound.
But then when the money gains back value, the prices don't drop
It is the British pound that lost value.
Notice how companies are quick to raise prices, but are very slow to reduce the prices when currency is strong (hint: Switzerland).
Not all is negative in this: UK may consider switching to OS software in the long term.
Man. That's great.
Where is this free Linux cloud service where I can stand up entire enterprise architectures and applications securely, robustly, with fault tolerance and multi-zone availability? How have I not heard of this service before?
Oh, because it doesn't exist and you couldn't even be bothered to read through the first 4 words of the god damn title, much less the summary.
It's like Pavlov and his dogs - the word Microsoft shows up on this site and people just start hitting submit.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Yet another practical reason to stop paying Microsoft! There is a plethora of excellent and transparent FOSS, which is growing every day. Because it is open-source and free, instead of continually reinventing the bicycle people can build new and more useful applications on top of infrastructure that already exists and can be freely reused. (As in the Unix software tools philosophy).
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
Where is this free Linux cloud service where I can stand up entire enterprise architectures and applications securely
You can stop your rant right there. If you want security and to be sure your data and operations will continue predictably, don't use a cloud service at all. Why does it make sense to entrust your crown jewels to a bunch of complete strangers, who use computers you know nothing about in a place that you don't even necessarily know, if you can't run them yourself? Besides, as you know full well, it is FOSS software that is (mostly) free of charge. No one has ever pretended that the necessary hardware and services came free - to do so would be ridiculous. But if you really want to run your software on someone else's equipment, why not go to AWS? Then you'll be using tried and tested FOSS, professionally operated for you. (Although I would never entrust really vital data to any remote service; basic risk analysis will show you why).
25 years ago I was warning people about the perils of what has come to be known as "hacking", and most of them were completely unaware and unprepared. I told them that the problem had barely even started yet, and wouldn't until serious professional criminals and state actors became aware of the potential and began to exploit it.
That would be about now, and those who entrust their IT to "the cloud" are simply meeting the black hats half way. They may very well get away with for a long time - just as people get away with leaving their houses unlocked, their windows open, and their cars unlocked with the keys in. But it isn't smart.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
It did come from an AC, what would you expect?
Yea, "your buddies". Wish that I had mod points to mod this up as "Funny".
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Start enjoying your Brexit.
I don't know, calling this "brexit" when it's not even happening is ridiculous. The are a couple of issues here. One, the pound has been overvalued for quite a while now, the uncertainty brought about recently has only sought to restore the pound to a more accurate valuation (although some economists feel that the valuation is higher than it should be still).
Unfortunately, the issue with uncertainty isn't brexit, but the result of politicians that aren't actually acting. The government is not doing a good job at showing certainty, article 50 hasn't even been executed by our government, so we and everyone else don't even know if we're even really leaving the EU or not. Brexit is simply leaving the EU and there is no progress since the elections, we're just stuck in limbo while politicians do anything but act. At this point, our politicians need to either start acting and declare we're staying in the EU or leaving, otherwise we're just going to ruin ourselves by staying in this stupid limbo.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
This is funny, as more and more is clear the Pro-Brexit campaign was lying their ass off. the first thing they did after they won was break their big promise of spending billions of pounds on care. And now a lot of people who find out the thruth about being lied to by the Pro-brexit people are getting angry.. Funny thing is, they want a new round for voting, but that's being nixed.
Brexit was never good for anyone, expect the people who ran the campaign..
In other words the EU was propping us up, and the moment we decided to throw away that crutch the markets started treating us like the sick man of Europe that we are.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
That's not how over evaluating a currency works, so in a word, no.
Saying that the markets are treating the UK as a "sick man" of Europe when the markets value the GBP value over USD is pure non-sense. I mean, really, if you want to compare a "sick man of Europe" as you put it, the value of BGN is half a USD.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
You don't seem to understand how currency is valued. The value placed on £1 is based on the net worth of the UK and its future economic prospects. The fact that £1 > $1 is meaningless, the two are not using the same scale.
The UK's prospects looked much better inside the EU, which kept out currency valued high. The English language, access to Europe and reasonable prospects all contributed. Then the markets noticed that we had thrown most of that away and were in the process of destroying our wealth in an effort to reduce immigration and "get back sovereignty", which they correctly interpreted as making ourselves less able to trade and compete in the world.
const int one = 65536; (Silvermoon, Texture.cs)
SJW, n: "Someone I don't like, and by the way I'm a fuckwit" - AC
I do and it has been over valued for a very long time, which Deutsche Bank analysts even confirmed last year. Even now, the IMF has stated repeatedly that the pound is still overvalued despite the fall and has been hurting the export industry for decades now which head lead to a major loss of business, particularly in the services industry.
The UK's prospects had a set of certainty for the next few years, they didn't look 'better', the situation is right now unknowable, particularly because politicians are not taking sufficient action to make strides in either direction.
Honestly, if that was the case, then we wouldn't still be overvalued (which I think is a significant problem in it self), but we are and the over valuation is overall hurting our exports to the point that our imports are overshadowing them.
Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
No. Not even close. The last 10+ years has seen a massive increase in accounting tricks on both sides, you can't trust anybody's numbers, but England set new standards in BS.
The only hope for the Dollar and Euro is that the collapse of the Pound puts 'the fear' into both political bodies and they stop printing.
The reality will be that capital flight from the Pound will hold up the Euro and Dollar for a few years, then one of them will pop as well. China will also be 'triggered' by the Pound, unless it goes first.
It's not so much oil trading that supports the Dollar. It's overseas cash reserves. When you live in a 'workers paradise' a mattress full of US dollars (as bad as they are) is still one of the safest stores of value available to you.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
Nobody has to keep money in dollars to trade in oil. Currency exchange is instant and computerized. Leaving assets in non-local currency is a risky proposition. If nations are leaving money in dollars, they should look to their local currencies problems. Just like the mattresses full of dollars, there is a reason.
There are many players holding enough Dollar/Euro/Renminbi/Pound debt to crash any of the currencies. But doing that would be blowing their own peckers off. We are in a financial MAD situation.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'