Monitoring MSFT: Azure Price Cuts, NYC Microsoft Store, Office 365

More price cuts for cloud services? That’s no surprise. Microsoft (MSFT) announced price reductions on specific Azure services last week. And what about changes to Microsoft Office 365? We’ll have news on how Microsoft is making its online version of its productivity suite a more collaborative experience. Plus, we’ll have information about Microsoft’s next version of Windows. All that and more in this week’s Monitoring MSFT.

Let’s start with the cloud price cuts. Anyone who has followed the cloud space knows that Microsoft, Amazon and Google – three big public cloud players – have been reducing prices over the last months and years. The reductions are something smart IT service providers have sought to leverage. If you use the big cloud providers to host your services, you can “ride the rails” and potentially increase your profitability with each price reduction.

Microsoft cuts Azure prices

So last week Microsoft announced price reductions for its Azure service. The cuts are coming on Oct. 1 and include a range of services from Exchange Provider Services to SQL for Virtual Machines to Data Transfer to BizTalk Services. The full list of price cuts is here, plus Mary Jo Foley has an analysis here and Data Center Knowledge has coverage here.

Office 365 gets social

Microsoft also looks to be working to making its Office 365 online productivity suite more collaborative and social. Redmond Partner News reports here that the company is adding its “Groups” feature to Office 365. There are plenty of specifics in the article, but the big picture view is that Microsoft is bringing greater integration to its suite of products that include Office 365, OneDrive, Yammer and Lync. And that certainly brings it closer to the functionality that Google Apps users find compelling enough to go with a Microsoft competitor.

Windows 9 preview

In other core product news, Microsoft is reportedly taking the wraps off an early version of its Windows 9 operating system tomorrow. Code-named Threshhold, Windows 9 is still mostly a mystery. But ZDNet reports one of the interesting things about this new client OS is the changes to the design and early feedback process. The result will be accelerated access to code fixes for participants in the Windows Insider program. More on the process changes here.

Microsoft Store makes NYC grand entrance

And last, Microsoft finally has plans to establish a flagship store in New York City. I visited the company’s pop up store a few years ago and was nearly seduced into buying a Surface tablet back when they first hit the market. The next  time I made it into the city, the store was already closed. But this looks to be a more permanent location for a Microsoft Store. And for your customers who are having system problems, it apparently will be a place to go to get free technical support.

Have we missed anything important this week? Let us know in the comments.