Analysis of Hyperscalers (AWS, AZURE & GCP) from GARTNER MQ for SCPS 2023 context

You all might have seen this Gartner 's MQ (Magic Quadrant) for SCPS (Strategic Cloud Platform Services) published few weeks back.

Till 2022, #Gartner used to publish MQ for CIPS (Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services). In SCPS, Gartner also tried to include how #cloud provider can #accelerate and #transform #operation and #business. I could see some of the new parameters which #gartner considered to understand provider's "Ability to execute" (Y-axis) and "Completeness of vision" (X-axis).

Some of the new parameters which I could see in 2023 report

• Overall Digital Transformation capability with multi & hybrid cloud support, Open Source support and Integration to native SaaS products
• Environmental sustainability

Since this report is frequently referred by CxO's in their decision to select #cloud platform, I was interested in analyzing and understanding the parameters #gartner highlighted for each provider.

In this #newsletter edition I have tried to analyze and compare different providers on different parameters from 2022 and 2023 reports. I have used the responses to Gartner report from Google here, Azure here and AWS here for more details. I have also used some additional public reports (like Canalys ) available to make it more understandable.

I have focused only on top-3 cloud vendors #aws #MicrosoftAzure and #GoogleCloud who are also LEADERS in the 2023 report (ignoring 甲骨文 #OracleCloud as my main focus is on #SAPonCloud and #OracleCloud is generally not considered for #SAP workload). Wherever there is a significant difference highlighted by Gartner , I have tried to capture differences in the table to have clear understanding. I have also used RED colour for negative mention and GREEN where positive mention. Anything in-between or no mention I have used YELLOW colour!

My first impression after looking at 2023 report was, #Azure has overtaken #AWS on X-axis on #vision part. But, if you compare 2022 and 2023 as below,

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) is almost stagnant on Y-axis (i.e. Ability to execute), but still maintains the lead
• Google Cloud and #Azure has significantly moved up on Y-axis and moved closer to #AWS
• Although 微软 has moved slightly on negative side on X-axis (i.e. Vision), it has maintained the Lead
• Also on X-axis, While Google Cloud has moved further, #AWS has moved on negative side.

Comparison of some "Ability to execute" and "Vision" related parameters

• 1-Market Share ( #IaaS + #PaaS ):

Gartner noted that #AWS has the highest market share of 40% and #GCP around 10%. There is no number noted for #Azure. But, I think #AWS does not have 40% market share as their revenue is not in the range of 4 times the #GCP revenue. So, I would prefer to refer Canalys report for last Quarter as below which seems to be in the correct range for AWS and Microsoft should be between 21-25%

Overall globally market share for SCPS is around $75B last Q, which means annually around $300B and top-3 provider account for 65% of that.

regarding the growth rate (as below) while #azure and #GCP are growing at 20% now, #AWS is growing around 10% Y-O-Y

• 2-Platform Resilience, Reliability, Availability SLA:

Gartner notes,

微软 #Azure's outage in Singapore in January of 2023 illustrated inconsistent operational practices and failover architectures remain an issue in some regions.

I think Gartner refers to an incident occured between 7th and 9th february where one of the AZ (Availability Zone) went down due to cooling failure and also BCDR failover using ASR (Azure Site Recovery) did not work which resulted in more than 32-hours of downtime for multiple customers/services in the Singapore region

more details of the event from AZURE health history

While Azure recommends customers to go for Multi-AZ architecture for production workload, 19 regions out of total 49 live regions do not have AZ Architecture. Which means they can only give the max SLA of 99.95% using AvailabilitySet within the region where AZ architecture is not available. Also, if the DC goes down due to cooling or other issues, all production workload using AvSET architecture also gets impacted.

To understand how the SLA changes between providers in different scenarios

• 3-Security:

Gartner specifically notes serious #security vulnerabilities in #Azure have been made public by researchers over the past two years. 微软 is currently in the process of addressing its #security posture and working to foster a more security-first culture.

• 4-Digital Transformation with (hybrid, multi and open cloud) & (Integration with native SaaS products) :

Gartner notes that

#AWS is more emphasizing on "Lift and Shift" migration rather than focussing on #modernizing and #transforming customers using cloud native benefits. It mentioned lack of tools and guidance for #multicloud scenarios. It also notes that #AWS does not focus extensively on enterprise #SaaS, preferring to address most business application use cases through its partner ecosystem.

#GCP appeals to enterprises here in moving customer's legacy workload to #container #serverless and innovative #data and #AI options in modernizing and transforming customers using #cloudnative #modernization and #agile methods. But it also notes Minimal integration between Google Cloud and other Alphabet products like #Workspace

#Azure has good multi and hybrid cloud options with #AzureArc and could be good for microsoft-centric organizations. It also noted good integration with other #SaaS products like #Microsoft365 #Dynamics365. But, it also notes Cross-service dependencies and technology lock-in with multiple #Azure services means customer has no options left than Azure options and it can lead to higher bill for the customer.

• 5-Design and Innovation:

Gartner notes,

#GCP has done very well in building up its wide array of #IaaS and #PaaS services, and has applied its core #design principles more consistently across its portfolio than its competitors. It also notes the #innovation of infusing #AI and #ML in #IaaS and #PaaS services at deep level e.g. Titanium technology which enhances the #performance, #reliability and #security. Hyperdisk Extreme which provides the highest IOPS of 500k among the three leading cloud hyperscalers.

#AWS has innovated by using #Nitro technology which could have given them potential cost and efficiency advantage over providers who rely solely on third-party components.

• 6-Partnership:

Gartner notes,

#AWS has large, capable and mature partner echo system, but it also mention that #AWS has a history of competing with partners by introducing services which compete with partners. #AWS offers many managed services for popular open-source packages, migration tools and incentives for customers to switch from partner database products, and competes with its own service channel through offerings such as AWS Managed Services.

#GCP has uneven partner maturity. It mentions lack of in-depth partner experience with GCP in some cases.

#Azure has done some strategic partnerships like 甲骨文 , AT&T and OpenAI which are important for overall Digital transformation to customers. But, it also mention uneven partner support quality of #Azure

• 7-Environmental sustainability:

This is new category of parameter which seems Gartner started evaluating from this year only. It mention #GCP has the highest sustainability rating of the providers in this MQ. It also mention very important when customers are going for high-energy-consumption cloud activities such as AI model training.

Also Alphabet Inc. parent company of 谷歌 was the only company to be featured in Corporate Knights Top 100 companies in #sustainability

https://www.corporateknights.com/rankings/global-100-rankings/2023-global-100-rankings/2023-global-100-most-sustainable-companies/

谷歌 also scored top rating on Hyperscaler sustainability scorecard: Rating Google’s, Microsoft’s and AWS’ environmental strategies

Summary:

So, to summarize all the comparison on different parameters,

Thank you for your interest. If you find it interesting please do like, share, comment and subscribe :-)

This will be my last newsletter edition/Article for the year 2023. Wishing you all a very happy 2024! See you in 2024 with more interesting articles around #SAP and #Hyperscalers !