Forrester names Google Cloud the only Leader in Forrester Insight PaaS Wave

Forrester defines the Insight PaaS category as an integrated set of data management, analytics and insight application development and management components, offered as a platform. PaaS more generally is the middle layer of cloud computing, customarily defined as services to allow software developers to create applications that run on the Internet. You can access the report on https://www.forrester.com/report/The+Forrester+Wave+Insight+PlatformsAsAService+Q3+2017/-/E-RES136245

Google was singled out as the leader in the category thanks to its “comprehensive set of analytics and machine learning tools designed to fit the needs of every business,”

The evaluation highlights the cross platform strengths and capabilities for all the products evaluated:

• Insight application services: Container Engine, App Engine, Machine Learning Engine, Cloud Data Flow, Cloud APIs, Cloud Functions
• Analytics Services: Big Query, CloudSQL, Cloud Datalab, Cloud Data Flow, Cloud Machine Learning Engine and APIs
• Big Data Management Services: Cloud Storage, BigQuery, Dataproc, Cloud Datastore, Cloud Pub/Sub, Cloud Dataflow, Cloud SQL, Cloud Spanner
• Platform Management Services: Stackdriver, Deployment Manager, Cloud Endpoints, Cloud Console, Cloud Shell, Identity and security services, Apigee

As for AWS and Microsoft, it’s clear they have some way to go. The two public cloud leaders find themselves in the somewhat unusual position of being ranked as mere “contenders.” The main reason is that AWS’s Insight PaaS offerings were said to lack unifying services such as metadata management and data governance, while the complexity of its tools means that many users will find it “overwhelming,” Forrester said. As for Microsoft, Forrester said it was encouraged by its machine learning chops and its addition of new services like Azure Data Lake and Azure Cloud Functions. However, this doesn’t make up for the fact that its services can be “confusing and somewhat redundant” and that more progress is needed to unify its metadata management and data governance products.