Microsoft slashes cost of cloud computing

Microsoft is cutting the subscription costs for its on-demand application portfolio by 30% to less than £7 per user per month.

Microsoft is reducing the price of Business Productivity Online (BPO) Suite , Microsoft Exchange Online, Microsoft Office SharePoint Online and Microsoft Office Communications Online.

The BPO Standard Suite is now £6.69 per user per month for a minimum of five users. It was £10 previously.

Microsoft offers products such as Exchange and SharePoint online for a monthly subscription rather than the customer having to buy full licences.

Google offers a similar deal for its Google Apps products range and has won significant customers.

Rentokil Initial became one of the largest user of Google Apps, by rolling out the cloud-based office suite to 35,000 users globally last month.

Rentokil plans to use Google to consolidate 40 e-mail systems, including open source products and Microsoft Exchange, into a single e-mail system. The complex set-up prevented staff from sending e-mail across the group.