Microsoft has announced cuts for hosting and processing online data for customers, in a move designed to knock Amazon.com from the top sport.

Releasing Windows Azure Infrastructure Services, the software company will issue price drops of 21% and 33% after promising to match Amazon cent for cent.

"It is the cloud that delivers low cost and great performance," says Bill Hilf, GM of Windows Azure Product Marketing, Microsoft.

"We will match Amazon Web Services prices for commodity services such as compute, storage and bandwidth."

Windows Azure is Microsoft’s public cloud platform, while Windows Azure Infrastructure Services is a new Windows Azure service which Hilf says lets customer migrate existing applications and infrastructure to the cloud.

"We have been working hard on this service for some time now," Hilf says.

"And I wanted to thank our customers for their patience while we worked to get it right and deliver an enterprise grade offering."

In a growing industry, with Amazon generated around US$1.8 billion in revenue last year, Hilf was quick to promote the release, saying: "Windows Azure is the cloud platform that embraces the power of “and”.

"It is a platform built to leverage on-premises investments and the flexibility of the cloud so businesses can realise the promise of hybrid clouds.

Being a cloud platform with both Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS) offerings, Hilf says businesses can pick what works for them.

"If you are an enterprise, small business or a startup looking for a cloud platform that truly embraces the power of “and”, I encourage you to take a look at Windows Azure and let us know what you think."