Wednesday 17 July 2013

Cloud pricing models

Pricing models for cloud services are evolving, and range from free and ad-based models to pricing based on volume, transaction, or user.

For example, a cloud service provider may opt to provide a basic level of service for free, with premium upgrades. This "freemium" model reduces barriers that customers may have in trying out the software. Once they've started to derive some business value from it, customers are likely to consider upgrading to a paid version of the solution. Usage-based or transaction-based models also closely map to value. Transaction pricing and paying per unit of measure may not be applicable for every application, but sophisticated billing, provisioning, and metering techniques enable cloud providers today to offer more flexible pricing models

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