Dive Brief:
- Several of the large cloud companies could continue to see significant growth for many years, experts predict. Amazon Web Services reported $2.9 billion in sales—up 58% year-over-year – last week.
- Meanwhile, IBM reported its cloud revenue was up 30% for the quarter year over year, reaching $11.6 billion over the past 12 months.
- Microsoft too boasted strong Q4 growth, with revenue for its primary cloud product, Azure, more than doubling, growing 102% year over year.
Dive Insight:
The major cloud service providers are trying to differentiate themselves to gain an advantage over their competitors. Last week, Amazon CFO Brian Olsavsky said AWS is continuing to rapidly add features to the service and expanding its geographic footprint. The company added nearly 500 new services and features in the first half of 2016, according to Olsavsky.
Jim Comfort, CTO for IBM Cloud said his company plans to focus on serving industry to set it apart from competitors. But as Olsavsky noted, the cloud market is growing so rapidly that "there's plenty of room for multiple winners in this business," Olsavsky said.
A study released by HyTrust in May found nearly 75% of organizations plan to move additional systems to the public cloud this year, while a May report from Synergy Research found that the overall cloud market grew by an astonishing 50% in the first quarter of 2016.
Not only are more companies moving to cloud, they are also choosing multi-cloud environments. A May survey by Cowen & Co. found the typical public cloud customer is now likely to select more than one public cloud provider to meet their various needs. More than half of the respondents indicated they were planning to use an additional public cloud vendor in the future. Public cloud providers offer different perks and benefits, and customers are not afraid of choosing more than one company to meet all of their needs, the study found.
