At first glance, public cloud services providers (CSPs) like Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and perhaps even Google and IBM dominate the North America market. But take a closer look, and Cloud Spectator offers a different view of North America public cloud IaaS industry.
The company has published CSP research reports and ranking lists for several years. The latest one take a hard look at the Top 10 Public Cloud IaaS Providers in North America, and ranks them according to price performance of VM (virtual machine) and storage services. Check the actual report for detailed price-performance and feature capabilities.
A condensed look at the rankings, in order from Cloud Spectator, is below. We've also sprinkled in ChannelE2E's comments and observations:
10. Dimension Data: Mainly a global technology integrator and MSP, the company also has some cloud services capabilities.
9. Microsoft Azure: Widely considered the No. 2 IaaS provider, trailing only AWS. Most every channel-friendly ISV is launching Azure instances these days.
8. Amazon Web Services: Still widely considered the No. 1 IaaS provider, and still pulling away from the pack, according to multiple market share research reports. We track the Top 50 MSPs supporting AWS here. And we typically attend AWS re:Invent each Q4 to track the cloud provider's progress. The other big move turning partner heads: VMware Cloud for AWS's continued expansion.
7. Google Cloud Platform: After a slow start, multiple MSP-friendly ISVs have launch their services in Google's cloud.
6. Rackspace: The CloudSpectator study does not account for additional features such as managed services, which are included in Rackspace’s pricing. Also, Rackspace has largely shifted away from public cloud services and focuses instead on managed services for third-party clouds -- particularly AWS, Azure and Google.
5. IBM Cloud (SoftLayer): IBM suffered declining revenues for more than 20 consecutive quarters, but the losing streak recently ended. The company's quarterly revenues are now growing again thanks to strategic imperatives like IBM Cloud. MSPs at the recent IBM Think and PartnerWorld conferences showed growing interest in IBM Cloud, along with associated Watson services.
4. Digital Ocean: Despite the strong showing on CloudSpectator's list, we haven't heard much from Digital Ocean over the past year. Our most recent company update involved free cloud monitoring services for developers, which launched in April 2017.
3. CenturyLink: Another surprising name on the list, considering CenturyLink has sold off some data centers, deemphasized competition with AWS and Azure, and focuses instead on network services.
2. OVH: Best known in international markets, OVH has been moving aggressively into North America. Among the key moves: Acquiring VMware's former vCloud Air public cloud services in 2017.
1. 1&1: The company may not be a household name in some CSP markets, but CloudSpectator continues to shine a bright spotlight on 1&1.
In order to be considered for the report, each CSP had to have at least one North America data center; offer self-service for signup and ongoing capabilities; hourly billing capabilities and block storage offerings.
