Dive Brief:
- A new report by Forrester Research Inc. found Microsoft still has the highest cloud revenue among enterprise competitors.
- The company is expected to take in roughly $1.5 billion in cloud-platform revenue this year, the Wall Street Journal reported.
- The report compared cloud market penetration by Microsoft, IBM, SAP and Oracle.
Dive Insight:
Microsoft’s closest competitor – Oracle – is expected to generate $757 million, followed by IBM at $600 million, the report said.
All the enterprise companies are behind Amazon Web Services, whose cloud platform revenue is expected to hit $6 billion this year.
Research firm IDC expects total cloud IT infrastructure spending to grow by 26.4% in 2015, while spending on non-cloud IT infrastructure remains flat. In such a hot and competitive market, enterprise cloud providers are offering attractive terms to entice businesses to migrate to the cloud.
“There is much more emphasis on cloud deals right now,” said Gartner analyst Lori Samolsky.
But Samolsky adds that CIOs need to use caution and ensure that any discounts and price protections offered for cloud services are not just short-term deals.
