Public cloud market share figures can vary greatly depending on multiple metrics. For instance, some reports lump multiple cloud services (IaaS, PaaS and SaaS) into a single data set. Other reports consider monthly revenue run rates rather than complete, annual figures.
Gartner's approach, in stark contrast, is quite simple. The company's Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) report examines annual revenues for just one segment of the public cloud services market (i.e., infrastructure services) and ignores other areas such as software as a service (i.e., Microsoft Office 365, Google G Suite, etc.).
Public Cloud Market Share: Gartner IaaS Research
With those parameters in mind, Gartner AWS commanded 47.8 percent of the IaaS market in 2018, followed by:
- Microsoft Azure, 15.5 percent;
- Alibaba Cloud, 7.7 percent;
- Google, 4.0 percent; and
- IBM, 1.8 percent.
The worldwide IaaS market grew 31.3 percent in 2018 to $32.4 billion, up from $24.7 billion in 2017, according to Gartner. But the rising tide won't lift all IaaS boats. In 2018, the top five providers commanded nearly 77 percent of the global IaaS market, up from less than 73 percent in 2017, Gartner says. In short, the giants are getting bigger -- pressuring smaller IaaS players.
Moreover, the IaaS giants are growing at various rates rom one another. Overall, Microsoft is gaining a bit on AWS. But IBM appears to have far slower IaaS growth than its core rivals. Oracle IaaS isn't mentioned in the summary press release.
Public Cloud Market Share: Potential Industry Shifts
In terms of potential market shifts for 2019 and beyond, keep these trends and developments in mind, according to ChannelE2E:
- AWS had first-mover advantage with MSPs, but Microsoft is finally working in a more formalized and consistent way with MSPs in multiple cloud areas.
- Google Cloud Platform appears to have growing momentum under Thomas Kurian, who previously led cloud and other initiatives at Oracle.
- Alibaba Cloud is dominant in China, expanding in Asia, and exploring multiple ways to push into Europe.
In the SMB sector, distributors such as Ingram Micro now heavily promote IaaS-centric partner initiatives -- particularly for Microsoft Azure.
