So far, it looks like 2017 will be a standout year for some of the leaders in the cloud computing industry – including Amazon, IBM and Microsoft.
Amazon and Microsoft, the front runners, are likely to continue battling it out for the top cloud computing spot, with both claiming more than $14 billion in recent quarters and with continued revenue growth expected.
For Amazon, this growth is believed to be due to their focus in infrastructure.
Microsoft, on the other hand, showed growth in their Office 365 product, along with the enterprise software for Dynamics 365 and Microsoft Azure.
IBM, which places a higher focus on the hybrid-cloud, also saw a huge gain of $19.5 billion. IBM’s growth was due in large part to its cloud service initiative.
It’s nearly impossible to differentiate any of these three companies from each other in terms of revenue earned. There’s little difference between the big three. There is, however, a huge gap between the trio and their nearest competitor.
While they share similar revenues, each company differs from each other in the cloud areas on which they focus.
Amazon’s focus is on IaaS and the public cloud. In the near future, it’s likely that Amazon will add numerous services to the many they already offer (over 1,000 in the past year alone). Amazon could also branch out into the Internet of Things. However, it will likely be years until IoT is making them as much profit as their cloud computer solutions.
Microsoft has placed its focus on the hybrid cloud and SaaS, while IBM has staked a claim in cognitive products as well as the hybrid cloud.