Top 10 Cloud Service Providers in 2017

In our list of the top 10 cloud service providers in 2017, we highlight the best of the best in cloud computing, including those providing infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions.

“The Cloud Computing model offers the promise of massive cost savings combined with increased IT agility. It is considered critical that government and industry begin adoption of this technology in response to difficult economic constraints,” according to the National Institute of Standards Technology or NIST, which is one of the oldest physical science labs in the United States. Its measurements support everything from nanoscale tech to global communications networks.

In light of this statement, and in addition to a positive forecast of a “rapidly expanding and steadily evolving” cloud services market through 2020 according to the International Data Corporation (IDC), we see tremendous opportunity for new players, though they’ll have their hands full trying to wrest market share from the top 10 cloud service providers in 2017.

To come up with this list, we sourced Datamation‘s evaluation of the industry’s financial reports and market research and then updated the revenue numbers according to the latest earnings results, though it should be noted that not all of the companies provide segments for their cloud computing.

For further reading, please see the 10 biggest cloud computing companies in the world.

Based on the most recent earnings reports, the top 10 cloud service providers in 2017 are Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE), Amazon Web Services of Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), Google Cloud of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM), Microsoft Azure of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT), Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL), Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE:RAX), Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE:CRM), SAP SE (NYSE:SAP), and Workday Inc. (NYSE:WDAY).

The following list focuses on infrastructure-as-a-service, platform as a service and software-as-a-service vendors, which are ranked per their estimated cloud revenue. Check out the list of the top 10 cloud service providers in 2017 beginning on the next page.

10. Workday Inc. (NYSE:WDAY)

Used by a lot of businesses today to track their HR processes and manage their finances, Workday Inc. (NYSE:WDAY) the last on our list of top 10 cloud service providers in 2017, has been a valuable tool in many company’s reporting practices. It went public in October 2012 with a valuation of $9.5 billion and has since nearly doubled in value. On February 27, Workday reported $1.29 billion in subscription revenue for its fiscal year 2017 ended January 31, an increase of 39% from its 2016 fiscal year. For its fiscal 2017 fourth quarter, the company pulled in revenue of $436.7 million, an increase of 35% year-over-year.

9. Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE:RAX)

Rackspace Hosting Inc. (NYSE:RAX) proclaims itself to be “the largest managed cloud provider”, with dedicated web hosting, email hosting, security services, e-commerce solutions, and managed databases. For the quarter ended June 30, 2016, its last as a public company, the cloud veteran raked in $35.8 million in net income, or $0.28 cents per diluted share, thanks to revenue of $524 million (on a GAAP basis). Rackspace was taken private last November by private equity firm Apollo Global Management LLC (NYSE:APO).

8. SAP SE (NYSE:SAP)

SAP SE (NYSE:SAP) prides itself on having over 350,000 customers in more than 180 countries. For its first quarter ended April 30, SAP reported that IFRS cloud subscriptions and support revenue grew by 34% year-over-year to €905 million ($987.49 million).

“SAP’s outstanding first quarter results are a decisive follow-on to our record setting 2016. Led by S/4HANA, we are seeing mass customer adoption of our solutions globally. Our inspired workforce is firmly committed to staying focused on the success of our customers and shareholders,” SAP CEO Bill McDermott said.

7. Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL)

Oracle Corp. (NYSE:ORCL)’s Oracle Cloud is a popular platform that is making some headway in its efforts to compete with the big boys in the cloud computing space. For the third quarter of its fiscal 2017, the company reported $1.2 billion in cloud revenue, a 73% year-over-year increase. That accounted for 13% of Oracle’s total revenue for the quarter, up from 8% a year earlier.

“Our new, large, fast-growing, high-margin cloud businesses are driving Oracle’s total revenue and earnings up,” said Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz.

6. Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE)

For its fiscal first quarter that ended March 3, 2017, Adobe Systems Inc. (NASDAQ:ADBE) reported $1.68 billion in total revenue. The company’s profitability was evident, as its net income shot up to $398 million or $0.81 per share, compared to only $254 million or $0.51 per share in the same quarter of its previous fiscal year. Adobe said that strong adoption and retention of its Creative Cloud and Document Cloud services drove its Digital Media Annualized Recurring Revenue to $4.25 billion, a $265 million increase quarter-over-quarter.

5. Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE:CRM)

Salesforce.com Inc. (NYSE:CRM) is a CRM company and one of the pioneers of providing cloud systems for enterprises. For the fourth quarter of its fiscal year 2017, the company reported a total of $2.1 billion in subscription and support revenue, compared to $1.7 billion in the same quarter of its fiscal 2016. However, in terms of profitability, Salesforce reported a net loss of $51 million for the quarter, worse than the GAAP loss of $25 million in registered a year earlier.

4. Google Cloud of Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG)

While Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG), the next one on our list of top 10 cloud service providers in 2017 does not report numbers for its cloud revenue, Kevin Tran of Business Insider reported that $3 billion of the company’s revenue came from the company’s segment that contains its cloud services. That total amounted to 12% (incorrectly reported by Tran as 18%) of the company’s total first quarter revenue of $24.8 billion.

3. International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM)

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM)’s cloud revenue was a strong $14.6 billion during the 12-month period between the second quarter of 2016 and the first quarter of 2017, with its Cloud-as-a-Service annual exit run rate jumping to $8.6 billion, a 59% increase year-over-year. IBM’s most visible cloud service is its Bluemix PaaS, which is aimed primarily at enterprise development teams. The company also offers a lot of enterprise software on a SaaS basis, and it sells cloud infrastructure, cloud management tools and cloud managed services.

“In the first quarter, both the IBM Cloud and our cognitive solutions again grew strongly, which fueled robust performance in our strategic imperatives,” IBM Chairman, President and CEO Ginni Rometty said.

2. Microsoft Azure of Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT)

At number two on our list of top 10 cloud service providers in 2017 we have Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ:MSFT) that disappointed investors with its latest quarterly earnings results, but not due to any fault of its Intelligent Cloud, which pulled in revenue of $6.67 billion, beating the StreetAccount consensus estimate by $160 million. However, while Microsoft’s Intelligent Cloud segment may look a lot stronger in terms of revenue than the top dog on this list, that’s only because it includes very substantial server revenue along with its Azure cloud computing service, though Azure revenue did jump by an impressive 93% during the quarter.

1. Amazon Web Services of Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN)

Amazon Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) tops the list of the top 10 cloud service providers in 2017, having reported Amazon Web Services (AWS) revenue of $3.66 billion for the three months ended March 31, compared to only $2.6 billion a year prior. Some of the most recent AWS developments include the announcement of Amazon Chime, a unified communications service that makes meetings easier and more efficient, and Amazon Connect, a cloud-based contact center service.

Disclosure: None