10 Biggest Cloud Computing Companies in the World

Which are the biggest Cloud computing companies in the world?

Small and large businesses, Enterprises and normal computing consumers are swiftly shifting to the Cloud. Gartner had estimated that by 2017, over half of the enterprise-level businesses would have a hybrid cloud structure in place. The firm also said in 2016 that the global market for cloud system infrastructure services would reach about $22.4 billion by the end of the year. Cloud platforms are immensely useful for next-generation digital business due to their agility, low cost, and flexibility.

Tech titans like Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) and Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) are reaping major chunks of their revenues from their Cloud businesses, and they are eager to make Cloud their first priority, as growth and demand for Cloud solutions is going to increase with a remarkable rate in the next few years. Gartner says that by 2020, “a corporate ‘no-cloud’ policy will be as rare as a ‘no-internet’ policy”. Given the explosive opportunities available in the industry, hundreds of new Cloud computing companies are sprouting up around the world, especially in the most technologically advanced countries in the world. But in this article, we will introduce you to the 10 biggest Cloud computing companies in the world.

Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)’s Cloud Business arm is known as Amazon Web Services. It has turned into a gigantic, $10 billion annual revenue business as of the end of 2016. According to a survey, over 50% of the major companies prefer Amazon’s Cloud services including its SaaS platforms, and this market share is expected to reach 64% in three years. Amazon started its Cloud business just a decade ago. Big companies and institutions like Alcatel-Lucent, BMW, Comcast, Airbnb, Lyft, NASA, Bristol-Myers Squibb and GE use AWS.

 

We are continuing our list of biggest Cloud computing companies in the world with Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ:MSFT) that started Azure platform in 2016 to provide Cloud based solutions to the Enterprise, small and large businesses. In the June quarter 2016, revenue from Azure rose by 100%. According to Morgan Stanley’s 2016 CIO Survey, which interviewed about 100 executives from the industry, Microsoft’s Azure platform will surpass AWS by 2019 for both Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) and Platform as a Service (PaaS).

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM)’s Cloud business consists mainly of its famous platforms like IBM Bluemix, Watson and Softlayer.  IBM’s cloud-delivered-as-a-service revenue in the first quarter of 2016 delivered $5.4 billion annual run rate. In the second quarter, IBM’s Cloud business revenue rose by 30% on the year to $3.4 billion. IBM focuses on IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS Cloud services to help companies shift to Cloud with low cost and less effort.

Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL)’s Cloud business has more than doubled over the past 12 months, and the company has a 5% share in the public Cloud market. Among Google’s Cloud clients are big names like Apple and Snapchat. Google’s Cloud business revolves around its Enterprise services, App Engine and storage services. The company doesn’t provide exact numbers about its Cloud revenue, and indexes it under “Other Bets” category, which advanced by an annual 40% to $197 million in the third quarter of 2016.

salesforce.com, inc. (NYSE:CRM)’s core business revolves around Cloud. The company was founded in 1999, and provides Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software and services based on its major platforms like Salesforce1, Force.com, Work.com, Data.com, App Exchange and more. The company recently launched its AI-based Cloud platform called “Salesforce Einstein”. According to Gartner, Salesforce dominated the CRM market in 2015 with a 21.1% annual growth rate.

Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) is the largest SaaS vendor is terms of sales. Oracle’s Cloud revenue in the fiscal second quarter of 2017 rose by 81% to $878 million from the year-earlier quarter. In 2016, Oracle Corporation (NYSE:ORCL) acquired Cloud computing company NetSuite for a whopping $9 billion to strengthen its ERP Cloud apps business, which already has big customers including Canon, Deutsche Telekom, Dick’s Sporting Goods, FedEx, Hasbro, Skanska, and Texas Instruments.

Adobe Systems Incorporated (NASDAQ:ADBE)  made a textbook transition from its core creative software and desktop software business to Cloud business in 2012, and it is now among the 10 biggest Cloud computing companies in the world. Adobe’s Cloud business now consists of three segments: Creative Cloud, Marketing Cloud and Document Cloud.

Next in line on our list of biggest Cloud computing companies in the world is the SAP SE (ADR) (NYSE:SAP) that is a Germany-based software company which is famous for its Cloud platforms and services like ERP and HANA Enterprise Cloud. In the third quarter of 2016, SAP’s Cloud revenue grew by 29%. SAP makes a lot of revenue in the Cloud segment by its subscription-based model.

Rackspace Hosting, Inc. (NYSE:RAX) is a major Cloud and Hosting company which has two lines of business: Cloud Servers and Dedicated Servers. In August 2016, Rackspace agreed to be bought by Apollo Global Management, LLC (NYSE: APO) for about $4.3 billion. Rackspace’s fourth quarter annualized cloud revenue totaled to $2.1 billion, up by 14% year over year.

Last on the list of the 10 biggest Cloud computing companies in the world is Workday Inc (NYSE:WDAY), which was founded in 2005. It provides enterprise cloud applications for human resources and finance, which involve elements of ERP in the cloud, such as financial and payroll applications. In the third quarter of fiscal 2017, the company’s total revenue came in at $409.6 million, an increase of 34.2% from the same quarter of the previous year.