Top 10 Cloud Computing Vendors

Enterprises, both big and small, are moving to the cloud for several technological and business advantages that it offers. Businesses are looking to move servers, storage, databases, software and more to the cloud to deliver computing services. According to a report, the value of the enterprise-cloud business is estimated to be a $20 trillion opportunity by 2025, and organizations are ready for industrial-strength deployments. It means a huge opportunity is up for the grabs. Capitalizing on this demand, several cloud computing vendors are offering cloud computing services which are easy to subscribe and come with a flexible pay-as-you-go billing options.

Here is a list of top 10 cloud computing vendors in 2018 who are changing the game with their excellent cloud computing platforms and services.

[2]

1.     Microsoft

Microsoft’s top goals is to ensure high customer success rate by deploying technical expertise throughout the early cloud adoption cycle. Microsoft Corporate VP Gavriella Schuster highlights that over the next 5 years the company will create a $20-trillion cloud opportunity by framing new ways to engage with partners and customers and gain potential partners[3]. In 2018, Microsoft’s cloud business will reach more customers with tailored-fit solutions involving AI and IoT.

2.     Amazon

Amazon’s AWS has become a fast-growing cloud business beating IBM’s  $17 billion by revenue[4]. It is important to note that Amazon’s Web Services is undeniably successful, and AWS holds a major share of the company’s profits. Amazon ensures that customers can run their applications without worrying on server maintenance. AWS operates on thin e-commerce margins, and their operational model focuses on high-growth business.

3.     IBM

Under the excellent leadership of Ginni Rometty, IBM has transformed itself into a cloud giant with the state-of-the-art cloud and AI technology. The organization is boosting the 2018 Cloud growth with 1,900 Cloud patents and ultra-fast AI-optimized chip technology[5]. IBM Cloud helps clients apply data and AI to build smart enterprises. With cloud revenue now sharing 21% of IBM’s total revenue of $79.1 billion, the modern technology and market focus have enabled the company to excel in cloud, security and analytics[6].

4.     Salesforce

Customer obsession and customer success is Salesforce’s principle in the Enterprise Cloud business. The company’s CEO Marc Benioff has set a bold vision for the organization centered on digital transformation and customer commitment. The vastness of data about businesses and its customers provide Salesforce the key to extend its strategic relationships in the cloud industry.

5.     SAP

SAP’s cloud management has set customer success as the most important priority within the organization. The company ensures that the customer gets the requested product, and the cloud system would benefit even the customer’s customers.

6.     Oracle

Customer choice is at the forefront for Oracle when it comes to Enterprise Cloud business, and the company offers a wide range of software deployment—on-premises, cloud, and hybrid. Oracle Cloud Machine provides the flexibility for the regulated industries in terms of deployment time and maintenance[7]. Even Amazon runs on the Oracle Database, rather than its own RedShift database, which is a perfect example to why even the competitors run their business on Oracle.

7.     Google

Google has a lot of firepower, but not just clear enough to play in the Enterprise Cloud business level. As per the Q4 2017 earnings report, Google has gone behind by $15B in terms of cloud revenue. Now that Google Cloud Platform has set plans for 2018, it will be most interesting to see how it competes with the other Cloud Computing vendors.

8.     ServiceNow

The cloud computing company has shown incredible performance in terms of revenue over Q2 2017 – an increase of 40.2% to $478.5 million[8]. John Donahoe, CEO of ServiceNow, believes that focusing on the full customer lifecycle, right from post-sale till renewal holds the key to business value. The organization has started to actively leverage the wide and rapidly expanding network of partners.

9.     Workday

Workday has grown at a fast pace—subscription-revenue growth of more than 40% over the last 4 quarters, and is now all set to top $2 billion in cloud revenue[9]. The company offers HCM and Financials cloud services where it remains unexceptionally focused on growth, expansion, and customer success. The enterprise is also eagerly waiting to launch Workday Prism Analytics and Workday Cloud Platform which would set the stage to expand in the cloud market and become a more strategic supplier to businesses.

10. VMware

VMware, a leader in private cloud, has become a smart dealmaker with public-cloud giants like Microsoft, Amazon, IBM and Google. These partnerships have helped VMware to streamline and accelerate its customer’s journey to the cloud. The enterprise has always ensured that customers can easily operate a seamless and customized hybrid cloud.

As we can see, there is a good competition among the top players in the cloud computing space and what distinguishes them from each other is the way they focus on addressing varying customer needs.

The cloud computing vendors have realized that customer success is the key to excellence in enterprise cloud. Operating on the latest cloud technologies to revolutionize the data center and streamline the digital workspace has become necessary to achieve customer satisfaction. Focusing on the complete customer lifecycle is the success mantra for these cloud computing vendors, right from sales to subscription renewal.

 

[1] http://business.financialpost.com/technology/cio/a-1-trillon-opportunity-why-the-computing-cloud-business-will-keep-growing-and-growing

[2] https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/microsoft-sap-oracle-make-new-major-pledges-customer-success-evans/

[3] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/01/22/microsoft-unleashes-new-cloud-growth-via-go-to-market-program-including-customers-as-partners/#6d5cbe1215c4

[4] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/01/26/amazon-to-become-1-in-cloud-computing-revenue-by-beating-ibms-17-billion/#4466795a6b3e

[5] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/01/16/ibm-fueling-2018-cloud-growth-with-1900-cloud-patents-plus-blazingly-fast-ai-optimized-chip/#38a8d75c84ac

[6] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2018/01/19/ibm-joins-microsoft-amazon-atop-cloud-world-booming-cloud-business-ends-long-revenue-decline/#48f9bb5349c4

[7] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2017/12/18/the-top-10-reasons-why-oracle-and-its-cloud-business-are-in-great-shape/#2eaab0f3664d

[8] https://www.forbes.com/sites/bobevans1/2017/08/15/inside-servicenows-surge-how-its-become-the-most-innovative-saas-vendor-on-the-planet/#35566fa95b72

[9]

https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/can-workday-take-sap-oracle-its-clients-seem-think-so-bob-evans/

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Top 8 Book Recommendations By Women In Cloud Network – August Edition 2018

The list below includes book recommendations from the Women In Cloud Network. These recommendations were provided by Sandeep Krishnamurthy, Mary Alice Colvin, Jacquie Touma and Chaitra Vedullapalli.

  1. “Deep Thinking: Where Machine Intelligence Ends and Human Creativity Begins” – Gary Kasparov,
  2. “Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow“- Yuval Noah Harari
  3.  “Tesla: Inventor of the Electric Age” by W. Bernard Carlson
  4. “Better Together” by Jonathan Sposato
  5. “The Leader Phrase Book” by Patrick Alain
  6. How To Build A Million Dollar Business With #Microsoft Cloud
  7.  “Applied Artificial Intelligence: A Handbook For Business Leaders” – Mariya Yao
  8. “The Power of a Positive No: How to Say No and Still Get to Yes” – William Ury

Let us know your recommendations that we can include in the September edition.  Enjoy the read!

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Bitlume @ Microsoft Build, Game Changer Event

Bitlume an emerging leader for the premier live and on-demand secure streaming for all types of event. We are in an exuberant phase of identifying the right market that can scale our innovation in live stream distribution, monetization and viewer engagement.


To get off the ground we subscribed for the bare metal server from IBM SoftLayer, whipped up the box with CentOS and developed our base app on MEAN Stack. As we continue to build for the market, we are constantly evaluating our cloud architecture, how it integrates with external apps and to build for scale. We are currently evaluating whether to migrate to an affordable cloud offering that enables product build at scale without burning our pocket. We had a great opportunity, as part of the Women in Cloud Accelerator to attend the Microsoft Build Conference.

It was a spectacular and game-changing event for us, especially with our decision to migrate to Azure PaaS from IBM Cloud.




There were some advanced takeaways that we didn’t understand before: Cortana integrates with Alexa to facilitate seamless cross-platform meeting setup; a serverless state is to become midstream in app development in the near future, looks promising. Many interactive booths were intriguing and made the experience interactive and fun. I caught up with some expo presenters to understand their offering and how their service integrates with Microsoft offerings. Such discussions offered valuable information on the opportunity to plug and play with Microsoft cloud solutions.

Overall the vibe in the conference offered an open forum conversation between both the participant and the organizer. At the end of the conference, we were able to conclude our evaluation and have decided to port our product to the Azure PaaS offering which offers enough flexibility in open source application integration.

The entire Women in Cloud team also surprised us with an exclusive opportunity for Accelerator participants to attend the Microsoft Startup Build Welcome Reception with Satya Nadella, held after hours at Miller’s Guild in Seattle.

It was a pleasure to meet with Satya Nadella for a handshake and make a 10-second pitch about my startup Bitlume. He was receptive and spent about 10 minutes listening in to Entrepreneurs patiently.

The access that Women in Cloud have provided to companies like mine in the Accelerator is invaluable and their on-going support is amazing. Here’s to growing in the Azure Cloud!

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Stand Up. 100 Cloud Commitments

When we started our journey with Women in Cloud last year,  we knew we wanted to ignite a conversation and drive action around diversity and inclusion.  We had a sense that a rising tide was coming and our timing was right for “less talk, more action,” but I’m not sure we could have predicted the amazing momentum in the national consciousness around these issues that have emerged in the last handful of months.

Perhaps I should not admit that I tuned in last week to the Oscars primarily to see the beautiful gowns.  I did. But I also listened with the hope that Hollywood would bring focus to the conversation around diversity in their industry.  I was not disappointed. When Frances McDormand asked all female nominees to stand up, I leaned forward in anticipation of what my gut told me would be a special moment.  Stand up she told the women, be recognized.  But then she went on to tell the powerful men and women in the room to support those standing by taking action — don’t just chat tonight at a party she admonished, but take real action and invite these women who stand to a meeting, give them access to opportunity.

I had what I’m now going to think of as my “Frances McDormand” moment  (sadly, without the fabulous gown) at the recent Women in Cloud Summit.  I looked around the room of almost 400  business leaders and amazing emerging talent and I asked them to figuratively stand up and take an action — make a pledge to give women access.  Access to mentorship, access to resources or tools, or access to programs and funding — there are so many ways to contribute.

We named this call to action the “100 Cloud Commitments” and our goal was to get the leaders in the room and those in our broader network to take 100 actions in 2018.  One hundred actions that create access for women entrepreneurs in Washington.

So how did we do? I’m happy to say we have great momentum with more than 50 committed actions to date from individuals pledging their own time to companies of all sizes committing resources for internal and external initiatives.  Here is a sample of some of the amazing commitments we’ve seen so far:

  • Microsoft and HPE jointly funded a 6 month accelerator program for 15 women-led companies to grow their ability to sell into the channel.
  • “I would mentor women to lead, to find their voice and claim a seat at the table,” said one leader who volunteered as a Women in Cloud mentor.
  • Gretchen O’Hara has been actively promoting the Women in Cloud efforts with leadership within the UN and local state initiatives
  • VC Gillian Muessig announced the $100M Sybilla Masters Fund to invest in women-led start-ups. The fund is named after an inventor whose corn milling device was the first invention to receive a patent in the American colonial era.
  • Multiple women have signed up to be technical mentors in leading-edge cloud technologies such as containers, Kubernetes and Docker.
  • Carrie Francey, VP at HPE, signed up to lead an “opportunity circle,” a networking program where women come together to help others achieve their business goals.
  • Michele Keeffe, the veteran entrepreneur and technology marketer, pledged to connect women in technology to the people, leaders, jobs, and companies that will move them closer to their dreams.

I also took a pledge that day.  With a college-age daughter, my interests lie in advising and helping young women carve their career path into tech, particularly into product-oriented roles and I’m mentoring several young women who are starting their career.

So, are you ready to stand up?  We can help. Let us connect you to one of the many women who raised their hand as part of the Women in Cloud Mentor Network. Or, do you have a pledge of your own ready to put into action? Are you ready to support women with access to opportunities? We invite you to help the community hit our 100 Cloud Commitments goal. Reach out to Wendy White here.

Want to hear more about 100 Cloud Commitments?  Check back regularly as we’ll be announcing more each month.

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Let’s start a movement, unlock opportunities!

 

Thank you for being at the Women In Cloud Summit. This is your chance to network with 300+ potential partners.

Women In Cloud Summit celebrates the female entrepreneurs in the tech world; a source of inspiration and support that connects and empowers women leaders and entrepreneurs, helping them to realize their potential and reach new growth through leading cloud industry, community, and government partners.

Through the summit, we aim to bring together many more powerful business leaders and entrepreneurs, to inspire and get inspired, connect with each other, and get their businesses moving to the cloud! Our prestigious speakers will take you through the ups and downs of being leaders, mentors, and entrepreneurs. We promise you will walk away with new insights, completely charged up, and highly motivated to go out there and make a change.

The Summit attendees include people from various domains; from graduate students to marketing and technology professionals, from entrepreneurs to mentors to C-Level executives.

So, put on your thinking hats, dress your best, and walk in with confidence, join the movement to unlock opportunities for yourself, your friends and your community.

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