Four Giants
Who are the “Four Giants” in cloud? Well I am sure you have heard of Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, IBM and Google. The “Four Giants” claim to have 54 percent of the cloud market share. What does this mean for the smaller cloud providers? Are they being pushed out? The answer is NO.
With established relationships and a deep understanding of their client’s business, many of the smaller providers are much better positioned to migrate and support businesses in the cloud. Migrating and being supported in the cloud, requires a trusted advisor, an understanding of your business and customized solutions that will fit the needs of your business.
While some of the larger providers offer these types of services, they usually lack industry-specific knowledge and the ability to provide custom solutions, so businesses do not have to compromise. This opens up a huge opportunity for smaller cloud providers to better serve companies looking to migrate to the cloud.
These partnerships can go both ways. The “Four Giants” are also working with the smaller providers, to establish partnerships that will allow these providers to expand their cloud footprint. By bringing together the experience of service automation, industry specific knowledge and open APIs, smaller providers can offer unique solutions with their existing platforms and anchor onto a larger platform, to make their solutions more much versatile.
The steady growth and maturity of the “Four Giants” in a market full of tensions and doubt, shows the world that the cloud is here to stay. The “Four Giants” have accomplished this major feat by creating trust in the market with standardized services and value. On the other hand, smaller providers can generally offer a deeper business understanding and much more flexible solutions, that will satisfy needs that the larger providers just can’t fulfill.
The current cloud market speaks just as much about the “pilot fish” as it does about the “sharks”. The relationship has become symbiotic because they both realize, as they work together, the market will expand and businesses will benefit. Bigger is not always better but you do need the right solution for your business, to be successful in the cloud. By focusing on personal customer experience, industry and business specific knowledge, as well as custom cloud solutions, smaller cloud providers are equalizing, what might have been a “David and Goliath” relationship.
