Having a Cloud Service provider that generally understands your needs as a business will be of utmost importance. However, finding the right cloud provider can be a daunting task.
This article will help you identify 6 Cloud Service Providers that you should consider when shopping for cloud services.
Gartner predicts: The worldwide public cloud service market to grow from $182.4 B in 2018 to $331.2 B in 2022, attaining a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 12.6%.
- Spending on Infrastructure-as-a-Service to increase from $30.5 B in 2018 to $76.6 B in 2022, growing 27.5% in a year.
- Platform-as-a-Service spending to grow from $15.6 B in 2018 to $31.8B 2022, growing 21.8% in a year.
- With software investments shifting from cloud-first to cloud-only, spending on Software-as-a-Service is expected to grow from $80 B in 2018 to $143.7 B in 2022. growing 22 % in a year
What is clear is that the cloud is accelerating faster than predicted, adoption is high, and revenues are soaring and are bound to soar higher in the coming years. Driving this technological wave are cloud service providers with a host of services ranging from Infrastructure, Platform, and Software services.
Keeping up with this technological wave, and driving it forward, are the Cloud Service Providers’ intent. I will now review some of the major Cloud Service Providers in alphabetical order.
1. Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Cloud, also known as Aliyun, while relatively new, is the largest Chinese cloud computing service provider. Aliyun provides a comprehensive suite of global cloud computing services to power not just their customers’ online businesses but also the Alibaba Group’s own e-commerce ecosystem.
It offers a host of products and services such as;
| Compute | Network |
| Storage | Security |
| Monitoring and Managing | Communication |
| Analytics | IoT |
| Application Development | Data migration |
| Web hosting | and more |
2. Amazon Web Services
One of the first to enter the cloud computing space, Amazon Web Services, or AWS Cloud, offers an extensive range of Infrastructure and Platform services to individuals, companies, and governments on a metered pay-as-you-go basis.
The Amazon Cloud provides a wide range of products, services, and solutions ranging
From;
| Compute | Networking |
| DevOps | Data |
| Machine Learning | Communication |
| Analytics | IoT |
| Content Delivery | Serverless Computing |
| Robotics | and more |
3. Google Cloud Platform
GCP or Google Cloud Platform, is a suite of cloud computing services, providing Infrastructure, Platform, and Serverless Computing environments.
Google also uses GCP internally for their end-user products such as Google Search and YouTube.
It includes G Suite with products for communication, productivity, collaboration, storage, and more.
The Google App Engine is a platform for developing and hosting web applications in Google-managed data centers, automatically allocating and de-allocating resources to handle the demand.
4. IBM cloud
This cloud provider is a full stack cloud platform that spans public, private, and hybrid environments with products and services covering compute, network, storage, management, security, DevOps, and databases.
Some of their prominent offerings include;
- Their Bare Metal Servers,
- VMWare(Hypervisors),
- Cloud Paks for Application Modernization,
- Virtual Private Cloud, and
- The suite of emerging technologies such as;
- AI,
- IoT,
- Blockchain,
- Data and Analytics.
With the acquisition of Red Hat, IBM is also positioning itself as the leading hybrid cloud provider of our times.
5. Microsoft Azure
Azure is a flexible cloud platform for building, testing, deploying, and managing applications and services through managed data centers spread out in many regions, Azure provides a global reach with a local presence.
It provides Software, Platform, and Infrastructure services supporting Microsoft-specific and third-party languages, tools, and frameworks.
6. Oracle Cloud
Oracle Cloud is primarily known for Software as a Service and Database as a Service (also known as the Oracle Data Cloud). Oracle’s SaaS offering includes wide-ranging applications such as;
- ERP,
- SCM,
- HCM,
- Marketing,
- Sales, and CX running in the cloud.
Oracle Data Cloud provides one of the largest cloud-based data management platforms helping customers personalize their online, offline, and mobile marketing campaigns, for targeted audiences across the globe.
Oracle Cloud also provides some cloud Infrastructure and Platform services.
Cloud is predicted to achieve humongous growth in the coming years. As most businesses are shifting to the cloud. The best time to shift is now. If you haven’t thought about your cloud adoption strategy, you should probably do so.
The near future will likely depend on the cloud a lot more from doing simple tasks to complex algorithms.
The question for businesses today is no longer “if” you need to adopt the cloud, rather “what your cloud adoption strategy should be to best serve your businesses and customers”.
