One of the most eagerly awaited reports in the segment, the Gartner Magic Quadrant divides competitors into four different areas, in an analysis based on delivery capability, business vision, global presence, customer portfolio, and satisfaction index, in addition to the technical aspects of the platform, case studies, and features.
Being on this list, especially among the leaders, is a huge advantage and a powerful marketing tool for players. Speaking of which, one of the main changes in this year's edition was the absence of some names from the Public Cloud Market: Virtustream, CenturyLink, Joyent, Rackspace, Interoute, Fujitsu, Skytap, and NTT, all of which were present in previous evaluations and, with the new criteria, were left out of the 2018 list.
In this assessment, the leading players are AWS and Microsoft, followed less significantly by Google. In the current market landscape, the dominance of these two companies reinforces the global trend in technology and high expectations for infrastructure as a service (IaaS) that goes far beyond servers and storage.
According to Gartner's analysis, "customers also expect management features, development services, and cloud software infrastructure, including fully integrated platform-as-a-service capabilities. At present, there are no longer any visionaries or challengers in the market. Only a few leaders and niche players are taking the lead and dictating trends in cloud services."
In an article published last month, the Forbes website listed some of the key lessons we can learn from the 2018 edition of the Magic Quadrant. Here are some of the points mentioned:
- The undisputed leader in public cloud computing, AWS Cloud is mature, making it a safe choice for many corporations, despite the growing complexity of optimizing performance and cost.
- Microsoft's commitment to hybrid cloud investments and open source is viewed favorably by companies. The brand's strong commitment to cloud services has been rewarded with significant market success, making them a viable alternative to AWS.
- The Google Cloud platform makes its debut in the leadership quadrant, although it still needs to close the gap between the two top competitors. The company's key differentiator is its significant investments in analytics and programming languages.
It is interesting to note that this edition of the IaaS Magic Quadrant did not feature any new names. With the exception of the six players scattered throughout the analysis, there are no new additions. Although some of the players in the niche area may move into the visionary or leadership quadrant, it is possible that new entrants will not be seen anytime soon in the Magic Quadrant related to this segment.
The year 2018 marks the consolidation of the Public Cloud sector, a decade after its launch. The segment appears to be virtually consolidated, with existing players competing with each other for their share of the market. In addition, the Magic Quadrant reflects the current paradigm shift among consumers, who are not adopting the public cloud for factors such as self-service, automation, and programmability—they expect greater advances in security, scalability, maintenance, and support.
You can read the full Forbes analysis article at the following link: https://bit.ly/2KuUBkw
