Dive Brief:
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Major cloud providers are no longer competing on price the way they once did, according to a new study by Deutsche Bank.
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Cloud price cuts peaked in early 2014, but have since slowed, the study found. Deutsche Bank researchers say cloud providers are backing away from the price wars because Amazon Web Services is now being more "rational" in its approach.
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AWS pricing on basic services has dropped 10% to 20% each year since 2014, researchers said.
Dive Insight:
While they aren’t competing on price like they used to, the big cloud vendors keep reducing costs for their infrastructure, according to Deutsche Bank.
Meanwhile, they are looking to differentiate their services in other areas, like artificial intelligence. Google and AWS both recently announced dedicated artificial intelligence services to tie into their respective cloud offerings.
Every major cloud provider is looking for its edge in the market. For customers, when choosing a cloud, the decision can come down to the provider's technology road map and its long-term services potential. Colin Sebastian, an analyst for R.W. Baird, recently said he believes Google’s machine learning and AI efforts give it an edge over Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services in the enterprise.
