Report:
Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services
How does Gartner define the Strategic Cloud Platform Services market in 2025?
Gartner defines strategic cloud platform services (SCPS) as standardized, automated, public cloud offerings integrating infrastructure services (computing, network, storage), platform services (application, data, value-added services such as AI/ML), and transformation services (resources to help customers adopt cloud-oriented IT delivery models). Services should be elastically scalable, metered by use, and consumable via web-based interfaces and programmable APIs. The SCPS market is based on delivery of integrated public cloud IaaS and PaaS services suitable for supporting mission-critical, large-scale production workloads, whether enterprise or cloud-native. Few strategic global hyperscalers combine the breadth and depth of capabilities necessary to meet enterprises where they are, help determine where they're headed, and provide the cloud services and transformation support to help them get there.
Key Facts for Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services in 2025
- Publication Date: 4 August 2025
- Document ID: G00826104
- Coverage: Global
- Authors: Alessandro Galimberti, Dennis Smith
- Core Purpose: Digital sovereignty, AI and cloud resilience are among the new trends shaping how organizations select a public cloud provider in 2025. Use this Magic Quadrant to understand how hyperscalers are adapting to new customer demands and determine which providers are right for your business.
Strategic Planning Assumptions
No strategic planning assumptions provided.
How was the Strategic Cloud Platform Services market evolved in 2025?
- The global CIPS market stood at $243 billion in 2024 with 21.1% growth rate
- Eight SCPS providers control over 97% of the total CIPS market
- AWS holds leading 41.3% market share but lost market share for second consecutive year
- Google Cloud achieved highest percentage growth at 26.3% in 2024
- Microsoft Azure grew 26% in 2024 with 27% public cloud market share
- Oracle OCI revenue grew 21.5% with current market share of 2.6%
- IBM has smallest market share at 1.5% with year-over-year decline
- Alibaba Cloud market share grew 20.5% in 2024, primarily in Asia/Pacific
- Huawei Cloud grew 20.5% in 2024, rapid growth in Chinese mainland
- Tencent Cloud grew 20.9% in 2024 with stable 2.7% market share
- Generative AI and digital sovereignty are key market drivers in 2025
- Capacity shortages reported across multiple providers, especially for AI infrastructure
What product features are required to be included in this year's evaluation?
- Elastic, real-time provisioning and resizing of software defined compute, network, storage and platform services with capacity, sold and billed on a metered-usage basis
- Self-service access via web browser, to a web services API and command line interface (CLI)
- Cloud software infrastructure services facilitating automated management, including monitoring, autoscaling and managed data backup
- Managed database and application platforms as a service offering
- A global presence and scope (for example, regional cloud data centers on multiple continents)
- The ability to securely interact with all services using identity and access management (IAM) controls, encryption, data protection and secrets management
- Artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) capabilities — IaaS/PaaS platforms, an offering of first-party and third- party foundation models, and specialized hardware and tools for building and consuming classic AI/ML and generative AI (GenAI) services
- 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
- Preconfigured IaaS and PaaS environments optimized to support common workloads such as SAP and Oracle databases, and specialty workloads such as Internet of Things (IoT), high-performance computing (HPC), AI/ML, GenAI and non-x86
- Data sovereignty cloud options, including support for data residency controls, capabilities to bring and hold your own encryption keys, and options to deploy into locally managed and autonomous zones and regions
- 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
- 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 marketplace offering a wide range of certified third-party software products and services associated with the platform
Scope Exclusions
- Providers that do not offer public cloud IaaS and PaaS as stand-alone services
- Providers that require managed services or bundle with managed hosting, application development, maintenance, or outsourcing
- Providers whose services are not hosted in infrastructure they own or lease
- Providers without ISO 27001-audited data centers on at least three continents
- Providers that do not meet minimum revenue thresholds ($1B with $250M international for 3+ year offerings, or $500M with 40% CAGR for newer offerings)
- Providers unable to invoice globally, offer consolidated billing, or negotiate custom contracts
- Providers without sales and support offices on at least three continents
- Providers without 24/7 customer support in minimum two languages
- Providers that do not offer required technical capabilities including software-defined computing/storage/networking, managed application and database PaaS, AI/ML capabilities, resilience architecture, and published SLAs
Inclusion Criteria
Vendors must, among other requirements:
- Provide public cloud IaaS and PaaS services suitable for mission-critical, large-scale production workloads
- Sell services stand-alone without requiring managed services or bundling with outsourcing
- Host services in provider-owned or leased infrastructure across ISO 27001-audited data centers on at least three continents
- Either: Generate minimum $1B revenue in 2024 with $250M from outside home country (if available 3+ years), OR: Generate minimum $500M revenue in 2024 with 40%+ CAGR (if available less than 3 years)
- Invoice globally, offer consolidated billing, negotiate custom contracts, and maintain sales/support offices on three+ continents
- Provide 24/7 customer support in minimum two languages with localization of contracts, portals, and documentation
- Offer both free and fee-based cloud adoption assistance and transformation services
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 - High
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 public cloud providers on their ability to become long-term strategic partners by delivering comprehensive IaaS and PaaS capabilities and helping customers transform their IT operations and business using cloud infrastructure. It examines providers across mandatory features (elastic provisioning, self-service access, automated management, AI/ML capabilities), common features (serverless options, distributed cloud, data sovereignty options), and transformation services (migration programs, partner networks, training resources). The evaluation focuses on providers' global cloud offerings and their ability to support four types of cloud journeys: technology replacement, cloud-native adoption, cloud innovation, and business transformation.
Q: Who should use this research?
A: This research should be used by organizations selecting a strategic cloud platform provider 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; (3) Learn about provider programs and resources to help digitally transform their organization. The Magic Quadrant helps clients 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. It is particularly valuable for IT leaders assessing long-term strategic partnerships, as enterprises will be heavily reliant on their chosen provider for many years.
Q: What are the mandatory features of vendors included in this market?
A: Mandatory features include: elastic real-time provisioning of software-defined compute, network, storage and platform services with metered billing; self-service access via web browser, API, and CLI; automated infrastructure management including monitoring, autoscaling, and backup; managed database and application PaaS; global presence with regional data centers on multiple continents; comprehensive security including IAM, encryption, and data protection; AI/ML capabilities with first-party and third-party foundation models and specialized hardware; and resilience architecture enabling replication and automated failover between zones and regions.
Q: What are some reasons for not being included in this report?
A:
- Insufficient global presence - fewer than three continents with ISO 27001-audited data centers
- Below minimum revenue thresholds - less than $1B with $250M international (for established providers) or $500M with 40% CAGR (for newer providers)
- Limited service delivery model - requiring managed services or bundling with outsourcing rather than offering stand-alone IaaS/PaaS
- Inadequate global business capabilities - unable to invoice globally, provide consolidated billing, or maintain sales/support offices on three continents
- Insufficient customer support infrastructure - lacking 24/7 support in multiple languages or localization of contracts and documentation
- Missing core technical capabilities - not offering required IaaS/PaaS features including managed databases, AI/ML platforms, resilience architecture, or published SLAs
- Infrastructure ownership constraints - not hosting services in provider-owned or leased infrastructure
Q: What differentiates Ability to Execute vs. Completeness of Vision?
A: Ability to Execute focuses on current operational capabilities and market performance, including product quality, financial viability, sales effectiveness, responsiveness to market changes, marketing programs, customer experience delivery, and operational excellence. It measures how well vendors execute today. Completeness of Vision assesses strategic direction and future potential, including market understanding, marketing and sales strategies, product roadmap and innovation plans, business model sustainability, industry specialization, innovation leadership, and geographic expansion strategy. It evaluates where vendors are headed and their strategic planning capabilities.
Reference
- Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Strategic Cloud Platform Services, 4 August 2025, ID G00826104
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