Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services

How does Gartner define the Strategic Cloud Platform Services market in 2024?

Gartner defines strategic cloud platform services (SCPS) as standardized, automated, public cloud offerings integrating infrastructure services (e.g., computing, network and storage), platform services (e.g., application, data and value-added services such as AI/ML) and transformation services (resources to help customers adopt cloud-oriented IT delivery models). Although owned by the service provider, infrastructure and platform services may be hosted in providers' infrastructures or customers' data centers. 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 2024

Publication Date: 21 October 2024

Document ID: G00806356

Coverage: Global

Authors: David Wright, Dennis Smith

Core Purpose: Generative AI and digital sovereignty are among many new factors that are reshaping how enterprises select public cloud providers. Use this Magic Quadrant to understand how hyperscalers are adapting to new customer demands and determine which providers are right for your business.

How was the Strategic Cloud Platform Services market evolved in 2024?

The global CIPS market stood at $200 billion in 2023 with 18.6% growth rate

Eight SCPS providers control over 97% of the total CIPS market

AWS maintains leading global IaaS/PaaS market share of over 42%

Azure revenue grew by 24% in 2023, with public cloud market share of 26%

GCP revenue grew by 28% in 2023, with market share of 11.5%

OCI revenue grew at industry-leading rate of 29.5% in 2023

All providers are racing for preeminence in generative AI capabilities

Digital sovereignty and distributed cloud options are becoming key differentiators

Industry clouds are expanding with integrated services across provider portfolios

NVIDIA-based infrastructure and proprietary AI hardware designs are accelerating

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 monitoring, autoscaling and managed data backup.

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 data centers 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 failover 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 workloads such as SAP and Oracle databases, and specialty workloads such as Internet of Things (IoT), high-performance computing (HPC), AI/ML 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 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.

Scope Exclusions

Providers that require bundling of managed services or hosting with IaaS/PaaS

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

Providers with less than three continents of coverage

Providers not meeting minimum revenue thresholds ($1B for mature offerings, $500M for emerging offerings)

Providers without sufficient international revenue ($250M minimum for mature offerings)

Providers without adequate global business capabilities (invoicing, support, localization)

Providers lacking 24/7 support in multiple languages

Providers without cloud adoption assistance programs

Inclusion Criteria

Vendors must, among other requirements:

Sell public cloud IaaS and PaaS as stand-alone services without requirement to bundle with managed services

Host services in infrastructure they own or lease

Offer services through public cloud regions on at least three continents with ISO 27001-audited data centers

Generate minimum $1 billion in revenue (for 3+ years GA) or $500 million (for <3 years GA) in calendar year 2023

At least $250 million international revenue (3+ years GA) or 40% CAGR (for <3 years GA)

Ability to invoice globally and negotiate custom contracts

Maintain sales and support offices on at least three continents

24/7 customer support in minimum two languages

Language localization in minimum two languages

Offer cloud adoption assistance programs

Software-defined computing, storage and networking with web services API

Managed database and application PaaS offerings

Elastic real-time provisioning with metered-usage billing

Published SLA for 75%+ of services with minimum 99.5% availability

Architecture supporting automated failover between zones and regions

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 the eight largest global hyperscale cloud providers on their ability to deliver comprehensive strategic cloud platform services (SCPS), including standardized, automated public cloud offerings that integrate infrastructure services (compute, network, storage), platform services (application, data, AI/ML), and transformation services. The evaluation covers IaaS and PaaS capabilities, global reach, partner ecosystems, pricing strategies, innovation in areas like generative AI and sovereign cloud, and ability to support enterprise digital transformation across four cloud journey types: technology replacement, cloud-native adoption, cloud innovation, and business transformation.

Q: Who should use this research?

A: Gartner clients should use this research to: (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. This Magic Quadrant helps enterprises compare providers on common criteria and map each provider's unique differentiators against their particular cloud journey, whether for technology replacement, cloud-native adoption, cloud innovation, or business transformation.

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

A: Mandatory features include software-defined infrastructure (compute, storage, networking) accessible via web services APIs; automated cloud management capabilities including monitoring, autoscaling, and backup; managed database and application PaaS offerings; global presence with data centers on multiple continents; elastic real-time provisioning with metered billing; and resilient architecture supporting automated failover between zones and regions. These represent the baseline capabilities required to support mission-critical, large-scale production workloads.

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

Insufficient geographic coverage (less than three continents)
Below minimum revenue thresholds
Lack of stand-alone IaaS/PaaS offerings (requiring managed services bundling)
Not hosting services in owned or leased infrastructure
Inadequate global business operations (sales, support, localization)
Missing mandatory technical capabilities (managed database/application PaaS, automated failover, etc.)
Insufficient SLA coverage or availability commitments
Lack of cloud adoption and transformation programs

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

A: Ability to Execute evaluates current capabilities and operational effectiveness, focusing on product quality, financial viability, sales and marketing execution, customer experience, and operational excellence. It assesses what vendors are delivering today and how well they execute on their current offerings. Completeness of Vision evaluates strategic direction and future potential, focusing on market understanding, strategic planning across marketing/sales/product/industry/geography, innovation capacity, and business model soundness. It assesses where vendors are heading and their ability to anticipate and shape future market needs.

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