Google has fired back at Microsoft with cheaper cloud services, signaling another round of price cutting in an increasingly competitive market. Citing enhanced efficiency in its data centers as well as falling hardware costs, Google on Wednesday said it was cutting prices of its Google Compute Engine by about 10 percent for all instance types in every region. Rival Microsoft announced last week cuts in the prices of some of its Azure services, available when purchased directly through its website.

Google is kicking off October with a bang by announcing another significant price reduction, further heightening the competition against the likes of Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure, among others. Announced amid Google’s Atmosphere Live one-day webcast summit, the new deal consists of a 10 percent reduction for all Google Compute Engine instances types across all regions, effective immediately. Urs Hölzle, senior vice president of Technical Infrastructure, attributed the latest round of price cuts to “increased efficiency in our datacenters as well as falling hardware costs, allowing us to pass on lower prices to our customers.” Google has been steadily ramping up its cloud strategy over the last several months, starting with an initial round of price reductions in March.