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Post-Brexit price hikes hit cloud and datacentre community, as currency fluctuations bite

This article is part of the Computer Weekly issue of 5 July 2016
Britain’s decision to exit the European Union (EU) is causing the cost of using US-based cloud services to rise for some UK businesses, 451 Research has confirmed. There is a propensity among US cloud firms – including Amazon Web Services and Google – to bill overseas users in US dollars before converting the price back to the customer’s local currency. As the value of the pound has fallen since 24 June 2016 – when the results of the EU Referendum were confirmed – UK cloud buyers are now reportedly paying more to use US-based cloud services than they were before the referendum. Speaking to Computer Weekly, Owen Rogers, research director of 451 Research’s Digital Economics Unit, said early market indicators suggest UK buyers are getting less compute power per pound than they were on 24 June 2016. “On the day of the referendum, £1 would have bought 18.5 hours of operating a US-based, medium-sized virtual machine, based on 451 Research’s Cloud Price Index averages. Today, that same pound will only buy you 16 hours,” he said. Not ...
Features in this issue
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UK IT community rocked but keeping calm in face of Brexit
The UK IT sector reacts with alarm, tempered by a calm pragmatism, to the British Referendum verdict to leave the European Union. Reporting by the Computer Weekly team
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Post-Brexit price hikes hit cloud and datacentre community, as currency fluctuations bite
Cloud and datacentre analysts claim IT buyers are already feeling the pinch from the outcome of the EU referendum, but past performance suggests demand for colocation space will rise in the event of recession