When it comes to public cloud services, Amazon Web Services (AWS) remains the global market share leader at 33 percent -- followed by Microsoft Azure (13 percent) and Google Cloud Platform (6 percent), according to Synergy Research Group.
Still, the market share race varies from region to region -- with rivals like Alibaba, IBM, Salesforce and Tencent giving chase. Here's how things shake out when you zero in on cloud services market in such areas as North America, EMEA (Europe, Middle East, Africa), APAC (Asia Pacific) and Latin America, according to Synergy Research Group's Q1 2018 estimates.
China-based Alibaba Cloud ranks among the companies to watch. Although not well-known in the United States, the company appears to be preparing moves in Europe. Chief among them: A potential Alibaba-BT partnership to reach European customers.
IBM Cloud Services: Still Growing
Also, No. 5 global player IBM continues to drive growth -- with annual "as a service" revenues hitting an $11.1 run rate during the company's latest quarter. Still, it's unclear if the technology giant is actually gaining "as a service" market share against AWS, Microsoft and Google.
IBM market share has been relatively stable at around 8 percent, thanks primarily to its strong leadership in hosted private cloud services, Synergy Research Group indicated in Q1 2018.
