Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services

How does Gartner define the Strategic Cloud Platform Services market in 2023?

Gartner defines strategic cloud platform services as standardized, automated, public cloud offerings integrating infrastructure services (e.g., computing, network and storage), platform services (e.g., managed application and data services) and transformation services (programs/resources that help customers adopt cloud-oriented IT delivery models). Infrastructure and platform services may be hosted in providers' infrastructures or customers' data centers; however, they're owned by the service provider. Services should be elastically scalable, metered by use, and consumable via web-based interfaces and programmable APIs. Transformation programs may be delivered by automated, self-service interfaces and managed interactions facilitated by account teams/partners.

Key Facts for Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services in 2023

Publication Date: 4 December 2023

Document ID: G00781177

Coverage: Global

Authors: David Wright, Dennis Smith

Core Purpose: To help I&O leaders evaluate and compare hyperscale cloud providers beyond technical capabilities, focusing on their ability to serve as strategic partners throughout the enterprise cloud journey - from technology replacement through cloud-native adoption, innovation, and business transformation.

How was the Strategic Cloud Platform Services market evolved in 2023?

The CIPS market stood at $168 billion in 2022 with 29.2% growth rate

Top eight SCPS providers control over 97% of the total CIPS market

76% of enterprise IaaS and PaaS customers rely on more than one public cloud provider

AWS maintains leading global IaaS+PaaS market share of over 40%

GCP's market share grew by more than 40% in 2022 and now stands at over 10%

Market consolidating around global hyperscale providers

Public cloud infrastructure has become strategic to many organizations

Four broad types of cloud journeys: technology replacement, cloud-native adoption, cloud innovation, and business transformation

What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?

Software-defined computing, storage, and networking, with access to a web services API for these capabilities

Cloud software infrastructure services facilitating automated management, including, at a minimum, monitoring and autoscaling

A managed database platform as a service offering

A managed application platform as a service offering

A global presence and scope (for example, regional cloud datacenters on multiple continents)

Elastic, real-time provisioning and resizing of compute, network, storage and platform services and capacity, sold and billed on a metered usage basis

An architecture for service resilience that enables customers to replicate resource configurations and data between provider zones and regions and fail over from one location to another as needed, in an automated way

What are the common features of top products in the Strategic Cloud Platform Services space?

Serverless PaaS options, such as functions-as-a-service (FaaS) and serverless SQL or NoSQL databases

Company-developed, publicly available software development kits (SDKs) in three or more programming languages

A distributed, continuously available control plane supporting a hyperscale architecture

Managed continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) offerings to support complete application and data management life cycles, including automated integration, build, testing and deployment

A distributed cloud offering, as defined by Gartner

A published service-level agreement (SLA) for 75% or more of all IaaS and PaaS services in all regions, with a minimum of 99.5% availability for each service in each region

The ability to extend and integrate a customer's private data center network and core IT services with the provider's cloud environment

The ability to securely interact with all services using identity and access management (IAM) controls, encryption, data protection and secrets management

Preconfigured IaaS and PaaS environments optimized to support common traditional, as well as specialty workloads, such as Internet of Things (IoT), high-performance computing (HPC), SAP, VMware, Oracle Database and non-x86

Vertical industry platform solutions comprising data models, platform services and partner ecosystems to support industry-specific needs

Cloud financial management tools and services that enable customers to forecast, track, manage, optimize and allocate cloud costs

A strategic co-innovation service offering, all or partially subsidized by the provider, designed to help customers create a one- to five-year cloud adoption strategy and implementation plan

A cloud migration program that includes migration planning, automated application assessment, rightsizing, cost estimation, and physical data and resource migration tools

A globally scaled partner network of solution integrators, MSPs and technology solution providers. Capabilities should include programs that enable partners and certify them with technical specialties and/or preferential status indicators, along with customer self-service tools to find, evaluate, select and communicate with partners

Globally available, self-service resources and provider-assisted engagements to help customers plan, build and operate high-quality cloud environments, including enterprise training and support, adoption frameworks and best practices, planning services and customer success reviews

A digital software marketplace offering a wide range of certified third-party software products that can be automatically licensed and deployed into the provider environment

Data sovereignty options, such as support for data residency controls, capability to bring and hold your own encryption keys, and options to deploy into locally managed and autonomous zones and regions

Sustainability and energy management tools and services

Centralized policy management, with support for programmable policy-as-code

AI/ML capabilities — IaaS/PaaS platforms, foundation models, and specialized hardware and tools for building and consuming AI and ML services

Tools and services to support more advanced agile CI/CD methodologies, such as GitOps and DataOps

Tools and services to support multicloud computing, including integrations with other vendor cloud services, as well as the potential deployment of provider services in other vendor clouds

Co-investment programs in which the cloud provider shares in the cost, risk and reward of a joint provider-partner or provider-customer venture

Scope Exclusions

Providers that require bundling IaaS/PaaS with managed services or outsourcing

Providers that do not own or lease the infrastructure hosting their services

Providers without presence on at least three continents

Providers not meeting minimum revenue thresholds ($1B for 3+ year offerings, $500M with 40% CAGR for newer offerings)

Providers without at least $250M international revenue (for established offerings)

Providers without global invoicing and contracting capabilities

Providers without sales and support offices on at least three continents

Providers without 24/7 support in minimum two languages

Providers without language localization in at least two languages

Inclusion Criteria

Vendors must, among other requirements:

Sell public cloud IaaS and PaaS as stand-alone services without requiring managed services or bundling

Host IaaS and PaaS services in infrastructure they own or lease

Offer services through ISO 27001-audited data centers on at least three continents

Have minimum $1 billion revenue (for offerings available 3+ years) or $500 million with 40% CAGR (for newer offerings) in calendar year 2022

At least $250 million in revenue from outside home country (for established offerings)

Invoice globally, offer consolidated billing, and negotiate custom contracts

Maintain sales and support offices on at least three continents

24/7 customer support in minimum two languages

Language localization for contracts, portal, documentation, and support (minimum two languages)

Offer cloud adoption assistance programs (free and fee-based)

Ability to Execute — Relative Weighting

Product or Service - High

Overall Viability - High

Sales Execution/Pricing - Medium

Market Responsiveness/Record - Medium

Marketing Execution - Low

Customer Experience - Low

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 - Medium

Innovation - High

Geographic Strategy - Medium

FAQs

Q: What does this research cover?

A: This research evaluates eight global hyperscale strategic cloud platform services (SCPS) providers based on their ability to deliver integrated public cloud IaaS and PaaS services, plus transformation services and programs that help customers adopt cloud-oriented IT delivery models. The evaluation covers technical capabilities, business viability, market execution, partner ecosystems, and strategic vision across multiple criteria including product offerings, sales execution, customer experience, innovation, and geographic strategy.

Q: Who should use this research?

A: This research should be used by I&O leaders and technology decision-makers who are selecting or evaluating strategic cloud providers. It helps organizations: (1) gauge the relative strengths and weaknesses of each provider in areas important to their business, (2) determine which providers are most aligned with their immediate and long-term cloud objectives, and (3) learn about provider programs and resources to help digitally transform their organization. It is particularly valuable for enterprises looking beyond 'what can this cloud provider do?' to ask 'what can we do with this cloud provider?'

Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?

A: Mandatory features for vendors in this market include: software-defined computing, storage, and networking with web services API access; cloud infrastructure services with automated management (monitoring and autoscaling); managed database PaaS (both relational and nonrelational); managed application PaaS; global presence with regional datacenters on multiple continents; elastic, real-time provisioning with metered usage billing; and a resilience architecture enabling automated failover between zones and regions.

Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?

Insufficient global presence (fewer than three continents)
Revenue below minimum thresholds
Lack of international revenue diversification
Missing core technical capabilities (managed database, managed application platform, automated management)
Inability to provide stand-alone IaaS/PaaS without managed services bundling
Lack of global sales, support, and contracting capabilities
Insufficient language support and localization
Not owning or leasing infrastructure hosting the services

Q: What differentiates Ability to Execute vs. Completeness of Vision?

A: Ability to Execute focuses on the vendor's current capabilities to deliver products and services, including product quality, overall viability, sales execution, market responsiveness, marketing effectiveness, customer experience, and operational excellence. It measures how well vendors are performing now. Completeness of Vision evaluates the vendor's strategic direction and future planning, including market understanding, marketing and sales strategies, product strategy, business model, vertical/industry focus, innovation capacity, and geographic expansion plans. It measures where vendors are headed and their ability to anticipate and shape market evolution.

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