Published Gartner,  the 2020 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services provides unique insights into the globe’s top providers of cloud offerings.

1.   New update

The 2020 Magic Quadrant has undergone some updates compared to last year’s “Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service.” Following with the evolution of cloud services, Gartner noted it was necessary to include not only hyper scale cloud providers, but also the broad range of services beyond cloud infrastructure as a service that they offer.

The vendors considered in the 2020 Magic Quadrant include both IaaS and integrated platform as a service (PaaS) platforms, such as

  • Database PaaS (dbPaaS)
  • Application PaaS (aPaaS)
  • Application developer PaaS (adPaaS)
  • Functions as a service (FaaS)

2.   Criteria to be qualified under Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services

In order to qualify for inclusion in this quadrant, vendors must:

  • Sell public cloud IaaS as a service
  • Be a top global provider for the relevant segments
  • Offer the public cloud IaaS service globally
  • Offer the public cloud IaaS and PaaS services that is suitable for supporting mission-critical, large-scale production workloads

Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services 2020

3.   2020 Results

The Magic Quadrant is composed of 4 categories:

  • Leaders:Innovative giants in the industry that successfully execute their vision.
  • Challengers:Companies that dominate a large market segment.
  • Visionaries:Providers that have a strong vision for the future market.
  • Niche Players:Those providers hyper-focused on a small segment.

For a better overview and understanding of the evolution, let’s compare last year’s Magic Quadrant to this year’s 2020 results:

4.   Leaders

Although the three main vendors remained consistent in the Leaders Quadrant from 2019 to 2020, their positions within this quadrant shifted slightly.

Amazon Web Services

With a commanding lead this year, AWS is cementing its place as a strong candidate for edge use and hybrid cloud cases. AWS has:

  • The largest share of the worldwide market in both database PaaS offerings as well as IaaS offerings
  • The resources and skills to deliver their complete solutions from end-to-end

Generating more than 50% of Amazon’s operating income, it’s no wonder AWS is referred to as a supreme leader.

Microsoft

Next up but not far behind in the Leaders category is Microsoft. Microsoft Azure provides a complete set of end-to-end solutions that address a varying of applications and workloads, perfectly suited for organizations that are already Microsoft-centric. The tech giant leads the hyperscale cloud providers in the application developer PaaS segment, focusing on open-source software with tools like GitHub and Azure DevOps. Microsoft will continue to be a strong competitor to AWS, especially with its efforts to strengthen solutions for containers, serverless, and hybrid environments.

Google

Rounding out the Leader category is Google, known for its open-source contributions TensorFlow and Kubernetes that have completely changed the course of enterprise IT. Enhancing its partnerships with telco providers while building out its hybrid capabilities, Google has seen a major increase in its market share of dbPaaS and IaaS with its Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

With GCP’s exploration into new territory with Anthos, Google’s container and Kubernetes-based middleware layer, it appears that the small gap between GCP and Microsoft Azure will continue to shrink.

New Addition: Tencent

Jumping on the quadrant this year is newcomer Tencent Cloud. Mainly focused on segments in China, Tencent Cloud has expertise in social networking, gaming, and digital e-commerce, with a big focus on gaming companies worldwide. With a larger global IaaS market share than Oracle and IBM, Tencent Cloud has the technical know-how to quickly become a major competitor to its closest domestic challenger, Alibaba Cloud. However, with its limited presence outside of China, it could take some time for this company to move up in the quadrant.

Download the full report to:

  • Learn where the market stands and where it’s going
  • Evaluate vendor strengths
  • Make note of vendor challenges