Cloud services nowadays are more efficient than they have ever been. The most prominent players of the cloud giants have been able to cut costs and prosper greatly. The cloud has started a revolution that is now the backbone to digital transformation across every enterprise on Earth.
The “big players” of the cloud have contributed to the success of multiple different companies through sustainable growth. The “big players” include: Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), VMware, International Business Machine Corp (IBM), and Oracle. Microsoft grants the architecture of Azure full credit for its sustained growth. Though it is true that on-prem storage is still successful and preferable to some, Microsoft has made it clear that they are “all in” with cloud transformation, and now, every aspect of the business feeds into or off of Azure. Azure is the most efficient way to store Microsoft’s data, and will be the future of the company.
Credit is due to Amazon Web Services (AWS) for popularizing the cloud. AWS is a very well known cloud platform due to its existential success. They were a significant contribution to cloud awareness, hence how the company helped popularized the cloud. AWS has helped more than just financial aspects of Amazon. AWS leads the public cloud market while also making up more than half of Amazon's operating profits. Aside from being profitable, AWS also provides customers with exceptional security and governance. AWS is the sole vendor approved by the US to host confidential data. All in all, AWS is the “cash cow” of Amazon, and an essential asset to the companies success and growth. AWS is creating a bright future for Amazon.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP) contradicts AWS. GCP argues they have been running the cloud for the past 20 years, considering they were built on a cloud platform. GCP is one of the fastest growing businesses in the country, arguably the fastest growing cloud player among the leading cloud vendors. The reason GCP can not compete with AWS and Azure though, is merely because of the quality of their service level agreements (SLAs). Regardless, based on how quickly their company expands, GCP will continue to flourish in the cloud environment; especially after they fix the quality of their SLAs.
VMware is the leader in data center visualization and is superior to other platforms in its ability to build rounded relationships with other vendors. These relationships, especially with AWS and Azure, are the reason for VMware’s constant increase in profit. VMware’s parent company, Dell, prefers their partnership with Azure because it is a more “formal” partnership, but VMware has made it clear that AWS is their preference. Vmware likes the hierarchical idea of “the top private platform with the top public platform”. They made it clear to the public that the VMware AWS partnership is going great, keeping the day to day business effective and efficient, guaranteeing it will continue in the future, and continue to grow and benefit both platforms.
IBM has also been trying to partner with VMware, in order to expand its own cloud. IBM provides SI services for multi-cloud environments, similar to VMware, and also sells its own cloud. IBM’s reputation is very beneficial in partnerships considering its nickname “Big Blue”. “Big Blue” essentially translates to a company with a very good reputation, good quality product, reliable, and is consistently profitable. IBM has maintained this reputation by being a productive, cost-effective company, while also remaining trustworthy. A partnership between IBM and VMware would enhance IBM business, allowing them to continue to expand on every vertical in the future.
Oracle is the overall leader in databases. Oracle plans to migrate 50% of their share in the database market to their cloud platform. The company believes that even just moving their workloads to the cloud could be upwards of $100 billion dollars. The company believes that there is no other technology in the market that is superior to their Gen 2 product. Gen 2 is Oracle’s cloud architecture, which divides customer data from cloud control. If their predictions after the migration are accurate, Oracle will be on a significant uprise, definitely opening more doors for their future.
All six of these “cloud giants” have many differences, but they all ultimately help companies progressively grow and continue to prosper. The cloud is the future of data storage, and even though on-prem is still very relevant and some companies prefer on-prem storage, cloud platforms are defining the future, one company at a time.