
Microsoft will make adjustments to Azure pricing in British pound (22% increase) - nbevans
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/2016/10/23/microsoft-to-lift-prices-up-to-22pc-over-falling-pound/
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Bombthecat
I know a ton of IT firms which moved from Germany to UK because of less job
protection there and less hassle to work 24/7\. I wonder how they will react
now for the upcoming price increases everywhere and probably UK leaving the
EU.

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pawadu
> less hassle to work 24/7

what does that mean?

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arethuza
Probably easier to 'persuade' employees to work longer hours in the UK than in
Germany.

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astannard
I remember after joining a nameless company here in the UK and filling out all
the paperwork. Someone from HR came over to me to explain I had missed filling
out a form. I asked which form and they replied the Working Time directive opt
out. I explained that 48 hours was more than enough time to do my job and that
I had deliberate not signed it. They looked at me confused and then went away.
It annoys me when they assume you should fill it it like that though.

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sqldba
They didn't refuse to hire you?

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astannard
No, that would be illegal, it's up to you as an individual if you are prepared
to work more hours. They cannot legally force you to.

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taspeotis
Previous discussion [1]

    
    
        Microsoft to raise some UK prices by up to 22 percent over Brexit (engadget.com)
        10 points by benjyclay 37 days ago
    

[1]
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12777877](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12777877)

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MichaelBurge
I would expect people to buy data centers and hardware by borrowing money.
These loans should be denominated in British Pounds in Britain. So if
anything, it seems like Microsoft should be getting a great deal since their
debt is being inflated away.

No reason not to raise the prices if the market will bear it, but I wonder if
Brexit is actually a great help to their short-term profit margin?

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tobltobs
Pick one possible advantage ("should be denominated in British Pounds") and
discard all obvious disadvantages (energy costs, rent)?

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arethuza
For many UK customers of cloud services actually having the data centres in
the UK is perceived as a rather important requirement.

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shubb
This guy got downvoted, but this is true for various legal reasons, especially
with likely regulatory changes due to brexit.

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deviate_X
It's not just tech good which are getting ~20% price increases but general
goods like food, DIY, curtain and everything really, as companies start
restocking they have no choices but to increase prices.

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gregjwild
heh.

The UK government has a lot of infra based on Azure. The MOD and NHS for
starters.

Smooth. Very smooth. Another indicator that the rabid, vulgar libertarians in
the Brexiteer ranks are more than happy to use Brexit to strain public
services more in order to justify private services.

Man oh man am I glad to be paid in dollars working remotely for a US company
right now.

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shubb
And imagine the inducements they must have offered MS to build a datacenter
here.

UK.gov actually has a semi-inhouse cloud called Crown Hosting that might win
new business from Azure. They don't offer the functionality needed to produce
an infrastructure that adapts to load but that doesn't matter - gov clients
don't really get cloud and typically want static computer systems duplicating
an on prem infrastructure without the support costs.

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rcarmo
Someone should coin the term "Brexit effect". Everything is quickly becoming
more expensive in he UK.

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pawelwentpawel
Apple raising prices too. Food is more getting more expensive. I wonder, maybe
naively, if all of the consumer prices will go up (over?)-compensating for the
change in GBP could we expect workers demanding higher salaries in the near
future too?

Also, recently pound has gone up (from 1.11 against euro to 1.19 now). It's
definitely not the pre-brexit state but imagine it slowly crawls up back.
Would you expect the price increases, in some time, to roll back?

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pjc50
> could we expect workers demanding higher salaries in the near future too?

How?

The wedge is already driven between skilled professionals who can compete on
the international market, and therefore have price-setting ability, versus
people who have no market power and can be squeezed and threatened with the
unemployment regime. Unskilled or marginal workers may end up starving.

No, this is the Greece effect. Trade balance has been terrible for years. Now
the financial services industry is under threat. While there's a lot of
negative things you could say about them, at least they've brought in foreign
money to keep the accounts balanced. In order for the balance of trade to
recover, imports have to fall. This means that the part of your living
standards which depends on imports (including Azure) is going to fall.

