Azure set to win the Cloud war against AWS

AWS, Azure, CIO, Cloud, Cloud adoption, Cloud Computing, CTO

Azure set to win the Cloud war against AWS

So the numbers are in and looks like Microsoft Azure is closing the gap with AWS for certain types of customers and for others it has surpassed AWS. RightScale State of the Cloud report reveals some very interesting trends and how Microsoft is gaining ground from the AWS territory. You may want to check out the complete RightScale 2018 Cloud report if you are interested in digging deeper and learning more about how the Cloud industry is transforming.
Azure seems to be either gaining a lot of ground or is inching ahead of AWS when we talk about SMB (Small & Midsize Businesses) , new Cloud users and new enterprise customers. This seems to be in alignment with Microsoft’s strategy to help customers in adopting and consuming their Azure cloud services and this strategy is definitely is working and paying off for them.

New Cloud users

For the new cloud users getting into the cloud and consuming it, Microsoft is only 4% behind AWS. This gap widens as we move to intermediate or advanced users. This is to be expected since AWS has existed before Azure and most of the intermediate and advanced users will be using AWS and not Azure. AWS started way back in 2006 where as Azure came to the market in 2010.

SMB customers

When we look at Small and midsize businesses which are using the Cloud it seems like majority of them are experimenting or planning to use Azure compared to AWS. 22% or these businesses are trying out Azure compared to only 17% for AWS. Also, for SMB users who are planning to utilize the Cloud, seems like they are favoring Azure (10%) over AWS (9%).

New Enterprise customers

When we look across the enterprise customers, the same story is repeating where more enterprises are experimenting and planning to use Azure compared to AWS and at the end of the day Azure (88%) is just a stone throw away from AWS’s (90%) lead in the enterprise market. Again, no surprises here since Microsoft traditionally has had previous enterprise software license agreements and relationship with large enterprises which makes for any an easy pitch for them to sell Azure cloud services to these customers as a bundle with their enterprise agreements.

Conclusion

Regardless of these numbers and trends Amazon’s AWS stays a formidable foe to Microsoft Azure and has shown considerable gains from 2017 to 2018 jumping from 57% to 64% adoption. Azure also gained a lot of ground on adoption from 34% to 45% and their adoption gain of 11% was bigger than AWS’s adoption rate of 7%. This again is a big indicator of how Azure is getting closer to AWS with a possibility of taking a lead in the long run.

Alas… only if the world was that simple. The reality is that we are now living in a complex world of multi-cloud with most of the companies adopting multi-cloud strategy and opting to go with multiple public cloud providers compared to one cloud provider. For this reason many customers may not give up on their current provider but rather may opt to also sign up for an another cloud provider, further complicating the situation on who is going to come out as a leader in the public Cloud war. Still my prediction is that if Microsoft Azure continues its current adoption rate we are sure to see it take a lead ahead of AWS in the next two years.