The worldwide cloud infrastructure services market increased by 37 percent in the third quarter, according to beancounters at Canalys.
As you might expect AWS was at the top, followed by Microsoft Azure then Google Cloud.
Canalys research analyst Daniel Liu said that a lot of customers were using a mixture of providers to house their data and applications the analyst house is arguing that the big cloud providers need to make sure they have a decent network of channel relationships to reach the largest number of customers.
“This balancing creates a huge demand for channel partners to provide consulting, migration, integration and management services across multiple platforms. The channel is becoming a new catalyst for continued growth for hyperscale cloud service providers, particularly as competition intensifies”, he said.
Vendors are taking steps to increase the support they provide for partners. Microsoft has one of the largest channel networks but AWS and Google are taking steps to catch up.
Canalys said that the channel was developing the skills and knowledge required to support those vendor relationships.
Canalys chief analyst Alastair Edwards said: “The largest systems integrators are investing in partnerships and building business practices with all three of the top cloud providers – AWS, Microsoft and more recently Google Cloud – recognising that their customers want support across all the major platforms. Other channel partners are increasingly doing the same.”
Edwards said activities across the wider ecosystem would have a role to play. Alliances and collaboration have been one of the themes of the year and the cloud infrastructure segment has not been left untouched by vendor moves to secure relationships that provide more reach.
“Success will increasingly be defined by the technology alliances forged by the cloud providers, as well as developing relationships with key channel categories”, added Edwards. “Microsoft has built new partnerships with Oracle, VMware and most recently SAP, which give it greater credibility with enterprises as core applications are migrated to the cloud.”
