Price Creep — On-Premises and in the Cloud

Microsoft keeps adding to and refining the capabilities of its products and linking them together to drive demand for additional components of its strategy. For some, these changes are valuable; for others, not so much, which generates price frustration with Microsoft in a subset of the market. The annual total amount of money paid to Microsoft keeps rising, or so it seems, and some organizations tell us they are reaching their breaking points, using the words “abusive” and “frustrating” when talking about Microsofts pricing power.

A large proportion of firms that decide to move to Google Apps do so as part of a re-examination of whether they want to sign a new, large contract with Microsoft. More often than not, those moving to Google are running older versions of the Microsoft Office suite and have a difficult time justifying upgrades or maintenance agreements. Microsoft contracts sometimes serve as a forcing function, getting its customers to consider moving to Google.

via Google Upsetting Microsofts Cloud-Office System Ambitions.