Amid all that is going on in the world right now, Cloud computing has emerged as the savior for various businesses around the world. The Australia and New Zealand (ANZ) zone is no exception to the trend of affinity for Cloud computing services, and a recent report highlights the same. The Forrester Wave evaluation has come up with an assessment of top public cloud vendors in the market, with a focus on PaaS and IaaS. Alibaba, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, IBM, Microsoft, Oracle, and Tencent have come up as the seven prominent vendors in Forrester’s research.
Methodology of the Forrester Wave Report
The last iteration of Forrester Wave report highlighted that customers in ANZ focused on onshore data center availability, support inside the country, and capabilities regarding partnerships while choosing a public cloud provider. The new evaluation mentions that while these concerns still remain relevant for ANZ customers, they should also focus on a few new needs this time around:
- Offer cutting-edge technology to developers: Application Development and Delivery (AD&D) teams are always pushing boundaries when it comes to creating new customer experiences. Hence, the customers should look forward to providers that can offer features such as advanced databases, analytics, integration, AI and Machine Learning (ML), containers, and Internet of Things (IoT).
- Highly capable infrastructure services with greater control: Innovation related to IaaS is an evolving sector, with the industry constantly surpassing its achievements. This is why ANZ customers need to demand more and more when it comes to things like specialized services, cost optimization, monitoring, security assessments, and even making services available on-premise.
- On-time and wider availability of services: ANZ customers should focus on providers that are ready and willing to bring their services and support to the region in sync with global announcements. Further, wider reach of services across the region should also be the focus going ahead as it ensures that companies are prepared to address latency, compliance, or even performance issues.
Based on these demands and expectations, the Forrester report ranked these seven providers in four categories — Leaders, Strong Performers, Contenders, and Challengers. While the ‘Challengers’ category has no cloud provider in it, let’s explore the other three categories and the service providers that made the cut.
Cloud Providers’ Ranking As Per the Report
Leaders
- Microsoft stands out in database services, on-premise and other cloud deployment options, security certifications, and worldwide data coverage. However, the local availability of its global services is under 70%, even in its largest region. While Microsoft did not participate in the full Forrester Wave Evaluation process, the report still estimates that Microsoft has edged ahead of AWS in the local ANZ market.
- AWS stands strong in developer services for teams and individuals, and is ideal for enterprises with an in-house development team. It boasts of robust enterprise migration services, including the new Outposts service. However, the study points out the absence of a low-code development platform in AWS’ portfolio. AWS also declined to participate in the full Forrester Evaluation process.
- Google is emphasizing on going global and is an effective alternative to the other two cloud providers in ANZ. Google’s development tools, integration, and services are popular globally, but it still has a long way to go in community strategy and marketplace. Google’s Anthosplatform adds migration and service mesh features to its Kubernetes products. However, the lack of local service availability and a second onshore region is a concern for customers.
Strong Performers
- IBM has retained its position in the Forrester Evaluation by adding Red Hat and Open Shift cloud-native PaaS. It is focusing on developing cloud services and has also shifted to “hybrid multicloud” strategy. The report also mentions that customers concerned regarding security and customers with complex proprietary apps prefer IBM.
Read more: Red Hat Marketplace Now Generally Available, Learn More About Hybrid Cloud Application Store
- Oracle is trying to gain an edge over competitors by offering competitive pricing and rapid scaling at global level. It boasts of a lower global parity when it comes to its offerings in the ANZ market. Although it arrived late in the cloud services market, Forrester expects Oracle to develop capabilities in the short run and offer products with mass appeal going ahead.
- Alibaba has developed a considerable data footprint globally, but it needs to step up when it comes to the ANZ market. While it does have good physical presence in the Australian market, it lacks extensive partner network and a general expansion strategy in ANZ.
Contenders
- Tencent owns the world’s largest social media platform but does not make it to the list of ANZ customers. While Tencent is present in the gaming and entertainment domains in ANZ, it lags behind in addressing local consumer’s needs. Still, Forrester states that Tencent is a good option for ANZ companies looking to expand in the Chinese market.
Summing Up
The Forrester Wave: Public Cloud Development And Infrastructure Platforms, Australia/New Zealand, for the third quarter of 2020, captures the trends for a unique market. The ANZ market can be termed as unique because it represents the juncture of North American and Chinese markets. The report used a total of 39 criteria to analyze the cloud providers, and Google emerged at the top spot with 21 points. This proves to be of significant importance as the ANZ market is looking to leverage the cloud in a major manner, and Google is also aiming at global expansion. Those interested in reading the report in full can click here.
Read more: Google Extends Confidential Computing Umbrella With Kubernetes Workload Support