The World’s Top Cloud Vendors

The Cloud Wars ranking of the 10 most-influential cloud vendors in the world. We adjust the rankings regularly, so check back for fresh insights and updates.

August 10, 2020

Now that many of the Cloud Wars Top 10 vendors have reported financial results for Q2, it’s clear that the enterprise cloud has become an essential element for the viability and future growth of most businesses. While some of the big cloud vendors posted declining growth rates for Q2, it’s worthwhile to put that in perspective:

#1 Microsoft’s enterprise-cloud revenue slid to “just” 30% as its commercial-cloud revenue reached $14.3 billion for the 3 months ended June 30
#2 Amazon’s AWS cloud unit reported that Q2 revenue reached $10.8 billion as its growth rate declined to “just” 29%
#4 Google Cloud saw its quarterly growth rate fall from 52% for Q1 to “just” 43% for Q2 as revenue hit $3 billion
#7 IBM was the outlier as its Q2 cloud revenue rose to 30% for the quarter, helped by some accounting requirements pertaining to the Red Hat acquisition
#9 ServiceNow topped $1 billion in quarterly revenue as it grew “just” 32% in the quarter

Given the wrenching stresses the global economy experienced in Q2 with tens of millions of people in the US and hundreds of millions around the world forced out of their jobs due to the ongoing impact of COVID-19, those numbers are all remarkably impressive. And they point to an even more-dynamic future as we are able to put the global economic slowdown behind us.

The Cloud Wars Top 10

1	Microsoft
	Fiscal Q4 Cloud Revenue: $14.3B Cloud Services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS CEO: Satya Nadella
	Nadella: big growth beyond Azure in GitHub, Dynamics 365, hybrid
	A top priority is converting Oracle’s on-prem database customers
	Its Top 10 digital transformation customers: the Satya Nadella touch

2	Amazon
	AWS Q2 Cloud Revenue: $10.8B Cloud Services: IaaS, PaaS CEO: Andy Jassy
	AWS no longer #1 growth-driver within Amazon—here are 3 reasons
	Grabs lead in outer-space cloud race with Aerospace & Satellite unit
	My ‘open letter’ to Jassy: don’t behave like predator but talk like pacifist

3	Salesforce
	Q1 2020 Cloud Revenue: $4.85B Cloud Services: SaaS, PaaS CEO: Marc Benioff
	Benioff’s secret weapon: Tableau creates analytics powerhouse
	Salesforce 2.0: “Platform & Other” is now top revenue-generator
	Benioff says of latest quarter, “Best I’ve ever seen Salesforce perform”

4	Google Cloud
	Q2 Cloud Revenue: $3.0B Cloud Services: IaaS, PaaS, SaaS CEO: Thomas Kurian
	CEO Kurian outlines customer-centric vision for world’s fastest-growing cloud
	Can Kurian displace Microsoft as SAP’s #1 cloud infrastructure partner?
	Remains growth leader as Q1 cloud revenue jumps 52% to $2.8 billion

5	SAP
	Q2 Cloud Revenue: $2.39B Cloud Services: SaaS, PaaS CEO: Christian Klein
	After strong Q2, Klein underscores his CEO role w/ clear, confident outlook
	Klein calls out Industry Cloud, just 30 days old, as a key “growth driver”
	Cloud to the rescue! Q1 cloud revenue 4.5X higher than new-license rev

6	Oracle
	Q4 2019 Cloud Revenue (est): $2.1B Cloud Services: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS CEO: Safra Catz
	Ellison’s 3-pt plan to battle Amazon: autonomous, performance, security
	Vs. huge odds, Oracle becoming legit IaaS rival to AMZN MSFT GOOG
	Ellison goes silent about snatching huge ERP customers from SAP

7	IBM
	Q2 Cloud Revenue: $6.3B Cloud Services: SaaS, PaaS, IaaS CEO: Arvind Krishna
	Why new CEO Arvind Krishna deserves A+ for performance in debut quarter
	Deepens partnership w/ SAP to help customers survive digital revolution
	Krishna lays out strategy to beat Microsoft, Amazon, Google

8	Workday
	Fiscal Q1 Cloud Revenue: $1.02B Cloud Services: SaaS, PaaS CEO: Aneel Bhusri
	Bhusri hammers legacy IT, tops $1B for Q1, embraces MSFT & SFDC
	Doubles down on commitment to employees amid COVID-19 crisis
	Exclusive: Aneel Bhusri is Workday’s “Pied Piper of Machine Learning”

9	ServiceNow
	Q2 Cloud Revenue: $1.07B Cloud Services: SaaS CEO: Bill McDermott
	McDermott & Co. are redefining pace of change and time to value
	McDermott says his workforce will triple by 2025 as growth booms
	How the company is turning digital workflow into strategic enterprise apps

10	Adobe
	Q2 Experience Cloud Revenue: $826M Cloud Services: SaaS CEO: Shantanu Narayen
	COVID + problems w/ Advtsg Cloud stunt fiscal Q2 growth to 5%: $826M
	A look at its COVID-19 response: facilitating distance learning
	Digital Experience business up 24% to $859M in Q4

The media and some analysts perpetuate the silly myth that the cloud begins and ends with public-cloud Iaas. While IaaS is certainly important, it’s the software layers farther up the stack—PaaS and SaaS—that are driving even greater business value, innovation and differentiation for business customers.

Here at Cloud Wars, our Top 10 rankings are created from the POV of business customers, not from inside the tech-industry bubble.