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The revenues of Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft, IBM and Google in cloud infrastructure services commands more than half of the worldwide market, according to new data from Synergy Research.
The figures reveal the combined market share of the ‘big four’ at 54% of the overall cloud infrastructure market, comparing favourably with Q214 (46%) and Q213 (41%). AWS holds a 29% market share at the top, with each of the big four cloud providers increasing their share of the global market in the second quarter this year.
Quarterly revenues of the big four have for the first time surpassed $3 billion, while the overall market, including infrastructure as a service, platform as a service and private and hybrid cloud, is approaching $6bn. While it looks ominous for smaller providers, Synergy chief analyst John Dinsdale argues opportunities still abound.
“The rest of the market is being left behind,” he explains. “No other company has been able to get close to these four in terms of data centre footprint, global presence and market power.”
Dinsdale adds: “The situation is not going to change any time soon. That being said, the market as a whole continues to grow quickly and there are many growth opportunities for small to medium sized cloud providers.”
Recent Synergy analysis has shown Microsoft establishing a niche in second place in the cloud infrastructure market while AWS continues to dominate. In February, the analyst house reported Amazon’s market share had hit a five year high.
The view of opportunities still pervading for smaller cloud players is one echoed by Ditlev Bredahl, CEO of OnApp. Writing for this publication in June, Bredahl argues: “Is it the end for any cloud provider without the capital of the mega-hosters? Far from it. By sharing their infrastructure they are able to offer more scale and reach than the mega-hosters combined.” However Kelly Stirman, VP strategy at MongoDB, argued at the recent Cloud World Forum event there will only be three cloud IaaS players – Amazon, Google and Microsoft – as everyone else will have run out of money.
What’s your opinion on the cloud infrastructure services market?