State of the Cloud: We've Reached the Cloud Tipping Point! See Who is Winning the Fight and Why

In this series, professionals debate the state – and future – of their industry. Read all the posts here and write your own (use #MyIndustry in the body of your post). 

We recently gathered 100 of the top Cloud CEOs who are defining the future of cloud computing at the 2015 Cloud CEO Summit jointly hosted by Bessemer Venture Partners and Salesforce Ventures. As we have done in prior years in private settings with our cloud portfolio CEOs, we presented Bessemer’s State of the Cloud Report. For the first time ever, we are pleased to make this year’s  version public and share it with you.

This report provides an in depth look into the state of the Cloud, trends in the industry, predictions for the future, and key metrics that cloud startups can use to benchmark their trajectories. The State of the Cloud Report draws on our experiences as early cloud evangelists, operators, and investors in the space.  

Through the years we have collectively met with thousands of private and public cloud companies, invested in almost 100 of them directly, and developed extensive custom data sources and assets, including the BVP Cloud Index, BVP’s 10 Laws of Cloud Computing, BVP Cloudscape, BVP Industry Software Revolution, and BVP Security for Startups – 10 Step Cybersecurity Plan.

 After 20 years of investing in the cloud, Bessemer has one of the largest cloud portfolios in the industry and we have been extremely fortunate to work closely with many of the early cloud visionaries and to learn from their successes.  As anchor investors in a quarter of the 42 top public cloud companies represented in the BVP Cloud Index, including LinkedIn, Shopify, Box, and Cornerstone OnDemand, we’ve enjoyed a front row seat to the revolution.  Our current private portfolio also includes many of the future leaders, including Twilio, Mindbody, Adaptive Insights, Gainsight, Intercom, Instructure, Mindbody, Pagerduty, many more.

 Most importantly, this is only the beginning.  We remain bullish on the cloud and predict the BVP Cloud Index (which tracks the top public companies) will triple in the next five years, reaching $500 billion of total market cap by 2020.  Here are some of the key findings you’ll see in the report:

 The Cloud Wins

• First category (CRM) goes over 50% cloud in 2016
• Now at 42 public cloud companies in the BVP Cloud Index – up 160% in 3 years
• BVP Cloud Index crosses $500 billion by 2020

Major Trends & Coming Disruptions

• Industry cloud comes of age
• Cyber security a threat and an opportunity
• B2D opportunity for developers and entrepreneurs
• Further commoditization of IaaS
• Cornered animals:  More M&A from legacy vendors ahead
• The dawn of enterprise mobile

We’d like to thank Salesforce for their partnership in co-hosting the event, and of course thank our 100 Cloud CEO attendees who continue to define the future of cloud computing and remain extremely open to collaborate and mentor those who follow them.  You can view and download a full copy of the report below.