Report:
Magic Quadrant for Container Management
How does Gartner define the Container Management market in 2023?
Gartner defines container management as offerings that enable the deployment and operation of containerized workloads. Delivery methods include cloud, managed service and software. Container management may be required for containers running on-premises, in the public cloud, at the edge or a combination thereof. Associated technologies include service mesh, orchestration and scheduling, service discovery and registration, image registry, routing and networking, service catalog and management user interface, and API. Container management is a foundation for cloud-native infrastructure and helps enterprises to automate the provisioning, operation and life cycle management of container images at scale. Centralized governance and security policies manage container instances, clusters and associated resources. Container management supports the requirements of modern applications, including platform engineering, cloud management and continuous integration/continuous deployment (CI/CD) pipelines.
Key Facts for Magic Quadrant for Container Management in 2023
- Publication Date: 20 September 2023
- Document ID: G00785628
- Coverage: Global
- Authors: Dennis Smith, Wataru Katsurashima
- Core Purpose: To help I&O leaders navigate the complex container management marketplace and identify the most relevant providers and products to support agility, modernization and transformation initiatives.
Strategic Planning Assumptions
- By 2026, the adoption of CSP-native platforms will propel 75% of container instances to be deployed within public cloud environments, up from 50% in 2023
How was the Container Management market evolved in 2023?
- First Magic Quadrant for container management, replacing the 2022 Market Guide
- Container management market grew 28.6% over the past year with a market value of $1.6 billion in 2022
- Market forecast to exceed $3.6 billion by 2027 with an 18% CAGR
- 13 vendors evaluated across Leaders, Challengers, Visionaries, and Niche Players
- Leaders include: Alibaba Cloud, Amazon Web Services, Google, Microsoft, Red Hat, and VMware
- Challengers include: Huawei, SUSE, and Tencent Cloud
- Niche Players include: Canonical, Mirantis, and Oracle
- Key delivery methods include cloud, managed service, and software
- Container management supports on-premises, public cloud, edge, and hybrid deployments
- Primary use cases include platform engineering, cloud management, and CI/CD pipelines
- Kubernetes is the dominant orchestration platform across vendors
- Growing interest in hybrid and multicloud deployments
- Serverless container services gaining adoption
- DevOps skills remain critical factor for deployment success
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- Container infrastructure. Provides enterprise-grade management of containers across on-premises, cloud and edge locations. Additionally, provides tools for integrated fleet management, including mind share and configurations for large numbers of container clusters potentially sourced from multiple providers.
- Managed provisioning and updates. Automates provisioning and updates of container management functions and infrastructure. This helps enterprises to align their infrastructure with cloud-native concepts and practices.
- Platform engineering support. Provides functions needed to deliver a self-service container platform using product management practices.
- Application platform capabilities. Provides application development and DevOps functions to accelerate delivery of applications using containers.
What are the common features of top products in the Container Management space?
Scope Exclusions
- Products not generally available as of 1 April 2023
- Solutions requiring professional services engagement for purchase
- Vendors without active product roadmap or go-to-market strategy
- Products without English language support (contract, console/portal, technical documentation, customer support)
- Solutions lacking native support for standard container management capabilities
- Vendors not meeting financial thresholds ($100M revenue with 100+ customers OR $30M revenue with 30 net new customers)
- Vendors not ranking in top 20 of Gartner's market momentum index
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Provide generally available capabilities as of 1 April 2023
- Sell solution directly to paying customers without requiring professional services
- Demonstrate active product roadmap and go-to-market strategy
- Offer phone, email and/or web customer support in English
- Support standard container management capabilities per Gartner's market definition
- Generated at least $100 million in annual revenue with 100+ paying production customers, OR $30 million in annual revenue with 30 net new customers in 2022
- Rank among top 20 organizations in Gartner's market momentum index
Ability to Execute — Relative Weighting
- Product or Service - High
- Overall Viability - High
- Sales Execution/Pricing - Medium
- Market Responsiveness/Record - High
- Marketing Execution - Medium
- Customer Experience - Medium
- Operations - Medium
Completeness of Vision — Relative Weighting
- Market Understanding - High
- Marketing Strategy - Medium
- Sales Strategy - Medium
- Offering (Product) Strategy - High
- Business Model - Medium
- Vertical/Industry Strategy - Low
- Innovation - High
- Geographic Strategy - Low
FAQs
Q: What does this research cover?
A: This research evaluates 13 container management vendors across their ability to execute and completeness of vision. It covers offerings that enable deployment and operation of containerized workloads, including service mesh, orchestration and scheduling, service discovery, image registry, routing and networking, service catalog, and management interfaces. The evaluation includes cloud services, managed services, and software solutions for on-premises, public cloud, edge, and hybrid deployments.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: I&O leaders responsible for infrastructure modernization, application platform strategy, and cloud-native initiatives should use this research to evaluate container management providers. It helps organizations navigating complex ecosystem choices, supporting platform engineering initiatives, enabling application modernization, and implementing multicloud or hybrid cloud strategies. The research is particularly valuable for enterprises seeking to adopt container management strategically and those evaluating vendor capabilities across diverse deployment scenarios.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: Vendors must offer native support for the standard capabilities described in Gartner's market definition, including: (1) Container infrastructure for enterprise-grade management across on-premises, cloud and edge locations with integrated fleet management tools; (2) Managed provisioning and updates that automate container management functions and infrastructure; (3) Platform engineering support to deliver self-service container platforms; and (4) Application platform capabilities providing development and DevOps functions to accelerate application delivery using containers.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Product not generally available by the evaluation date (1 April 2023)
- Inability to sell directly to customers without mandatory professional services engagement
- Lack of active product roadmap or go-to-market strategy
- Missing English language support for contracts, documentation, or customer support
- Insufficient native support for standard container management capabilities
- Failure to meet minimum revenue thresholds ($100M with 100+ customers OR $30M with 30 net new customers)
- Not ranking among top 20 organizations in Gartner's market momentum index
- Lack of public pricing information or inability to provide pricing page link
Q: What differentiates Ability to Execute vs. Completeness of Vision?
A: Ability to Execute focuses on current capabilities and operational effectiveness - evaluating the vendor's existing product quality, financial viability, sales performance, market track record, and customer support. It measures how well vendors are executing today. Completeness of Vision assesses future direction and strategic thinking - examining market understanding, product strategy, innovation capacity, and long-term business approach. It measures how well vendors are positioned for future market needs and their ability to shape market direction.
Reference
- Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Container Management, 20 September 2023, ID G00785628
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