Cloud Platforms (IaaS/PaaS)

Overview

Cloud platforms provide on-demand computing resources — servers, storage, networking, databases, and application services — over the internet. They form the foundation of modern software infrastructure, enabling organizations to build, deploy, and scale applications without owning physical hardware.

Market Size

The global cloud infrastructure services market exceeds $300 billion annually and continues to grow 20%+ year-over-year.

Top Players

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

• Company: Amazon (USA)
• Market Position: Market leader with ~31% share
• Key Strengths: Broadest service catalog (200+ services), largest global infrastructure, most mature ecosystem
• Core Services: EC2, S3, Lambda, RDS, EKS, SageMaker
• Typical Customers: Startups to Fortune 500, Netflix, Airbnb, NASA

Microsoft Azure

• Company: Microsoft (USA)
• Market Position: #2 with ~25% share, fastest growing among top 3
• Key Strengths: Hybrid cloud leadership, enterprise identity (Entra ID), deep Microsoft stack integration, OpenAI partnership
• Core Services: Azure VMs, Blob Storage, Azure Functions, Cosmos DB, AKS
• Typical Customers: Enterprises, government, Microsoft-centric organizations

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

• Company: Alphabet/Google (USA)
• Market Position: #3 with ~11% share
• Key Strengths: AI/ML leadership (Vertex AI, TPUs), BigQuery data analytics, Kubernetes (GKE), networking excellence
• Core Services: Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Cloud Run, Vertex AI
• Typical Customers: Data-intensive companies, AI/ML teams, digital natives

Alibaba Cloud

• Company: Alibaba Group (China)
• Market Position: #1 in Asia-Pacific, #4 globally
• Key Strengths: Dominant in China market, strong in e-commerce infrastructure, competitive pricing in APAC
• Core Services: ECS, OSS, MaxCompute, PAI (AI platform)
• Typical Customers: Chinese enterprises, APAC businesses

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

• Company: Oracle Corporation (USA)
• Market Position: Fast-growing challenger, strong in database workloads
• Key Strengths: Superior price-performance, dedicated regions, Autonomous Database, strong for Oracle workloads
• Core Services: Bare Metal, Autonomous DB, OCI Compute, Oracle Cloud VMware
• Typical Customers: Oracle ERP/DB customers, enterprises seeking cost optimization

Key Trends

• Multi-cloud strategies: Organizations using 2+ cloud providers to avoid vendor lock-in
• Sovereign cloud: Regional data residency and compliance requirements driving local cloud regions
• AI infrastructure: GPU clusters, AI-optimized instances, and model serving becoming central offerings
• Serverless expansion: Functions, containers, and databases shifting to consumption-based models