“AWS, Microsoft, IBM and the other cloud vendors should be concerned with this new entrant into the market.”
The new entrant into the market is in fact Google, as the tech giant comes back to the cloud table with a refocused offering.
Fresh from realigning its approach with the recent hire of VMware founder Diane Greene to run its new-look cloud business - unifying cloud divisions Google for Work, Cloud Platform and Google Apps - the company has now been touted as a serious market challenger.
“Clearly, Google is looking to take advantage of the changing paradigm of compute,” says Robert Stroud, Infrastructure and Operations Analyst, Forrester Research.
“Google already has a presence in the Cloud arena including its Google Cloud Platform.
“The focus of the cloud business is to channel its resources to create serious momentum in the market. Now the journey to success will not be overnight.
“That said, with its resources that include people and cash, application stack offerings and market awareness it has the components to differentiate and compete in this rapidly growing market.”
Analyst findings during 2015 claim that the big four vendors - AWS, Microsoft, IBM and Google - hold 54 percent of the market, controlling well over half of the worldwide cloud infrastructure service industry.
Of the 54 percent share of the market that they hold, Synergy Research reports that Amazon represents 29 percent; Microsoft, 12 percent; IBM, 7 percent; and Google, 6 percent.
So in essence, Microsoft, IBM, and Google combine for 25 percent of the market, compared to Amazon's 29 percent.
But looking ahead, fellow analyst Stroud believes Google’s newfound seriousness about cloud will cause AWS, Microsoft and IBM serious pain points in 2016 and beyond.
“Watch out AWS,” claims Stroud, “the real winner here will be the consumer of cloud services.
“With the refocused entry of Google, not only will there be continued price pressure, the acceleration of innovation will accelerate, making public cloud an even larger component of your compute workload options.”
That said, Stroud rightly points out that AWS, Microsoft and IBM have the advantage of being established.
“Also, without investing in innovation and moving beyond the highly commoditised Infrastructure as a Service play, they too could be in a discount spiral that could be a feature of cloud in 2016,” he adds.
