Although cloud computing has been around for years, it’s popularity among consumers and — perhaps more importantly — businesses has soared in the last couple of years. As a result, more and more companies are providing cloud computing services and cashing in on the industry’s upward trend.
The influx of cloud computing servicers is creating a competitive market environment. Research like the Gartner Magic Quadrant Report seeks to stratify these companies on a graph that charts the completeness of their vision and their ability to execute their vision and objectives.
The most recent Gartner Magic Quadrant Report has also suggested that Infrastructure as a Service, or IaaS, is becoming more prevalent as a computing solution for businesses. Many companies are rising to the top of this service field thanks to software and applications that are user-friendly and attractive to clients.
Top IaaS companies blend vision with ability to execute
At this early stage in the market for infrastructure as a service, the strength of a company largely resides in its ability to attract businesses away from traditional computing models and to invest in public cloud infrastructure. In this young field, Amazon Web Services is widely regarded as the standard for all other companies, claiming the largest market share and mindshare of any other company. It’s also got the Amazon brand and financial strength behind it, allowing the Web services division to offer cloud computing as a low-cost service.
But other small competitors have surprised the market with their resourcefulness and execution. One company gaining strong praise from the Gartner Magic Quadrant Report is Bluelock. In the past year, Bluelock has not only shrugged off its reputation as a humble outfit, but it’s also managed to gain respect as one of the highest-rated IaaS providers in the country. A good chunk of credit for this surprise performance should be attributed to the company’s vCloud Director, which has leveraged the hybrid cloud for businesses.
In fact, Bluelock’s business performance is strongly tied to the hybrid cloud, and as it has grown in stature, so has the company. The company’s cloud features also give customers simple tools to understand their cloud usag
e and the related costs.
Delivering Infrastructure as a Service
A challenge to all these businesses in the IaaS market, and one that will determine the success and failures of some outfits, is providing these services at the highest quality possible. An abundance of competition gives consumers options if companies fail to provide adequate security and user-friendly applications and tools.
Products like the Director build toward top-of-the-line security to provide elastic interfaces across multiple data clusters. The key to success is making cloud-based resources available without interrupting workflows to handle configuration or system maintenance, providing a seamless service to users and maximizing customer satisfaction.
Ultimately, the most successful — and sustainable — cloud computing businesses will be the ones who can predict the needs of consumers and businesses and have solutions in place before the demand arrives. Although circumstances are always in flux, the Magic Quadrant Report provides some of the most comprehensive information we have about which companies are leading the Infrastructure as a Service market and which ones are challengers, visionaries, or niche players.
As the number of companies invested into this market increases, it will become more urgent for the current leaders to adapt, evolve and serve their consumer base better to remain relevant in a rapidly developing field.
