Google, Amazon, and Microsoft intensify cloud-computing competition by cutting prices with private data centers

Amazon, Google, and Microsoft intend to intensify their competition in the cloud-computing business in the coming year, cutting prices and driving companies including IBM and VMware to look for other ways to make money.

As legacy technology companies find it harder to compete with the dominant players in data-storage services, there may be more acquisitions of security and data-analytics companies, Anurag Rana, a software and IT services analyst for Bloomberg Intelligence, said yesterday.

“This could be an area where we could see some pockets of increased M&A in 2016,” Mr Rana said.