Amazon and Microsoft Dominate a Rapidly Expanding Cloud Market
Amazon and Microsoft report massive cloud revenue growth, capturing the lion's share of a $250 billion global market. Meanwhile, competitors like IBM struggle to keep pace.
Amazon and Microsoft continue to dominate the rapidly expanding cloud computing market, even as broader economic activity shows signs of slowing. Amazon Web Services (AWS) grows 46 percent to reach a $29.6 billion annual run rate, while Microsoft's Azure sees a 76 percent boost in growth, bringing its Intelligent Cloud division to a $37.6 billion run rate. Although the two companies calculate cloud revenue differently, their impressive numbers highlight a booming industry.
The two tech giants hold a firm grip on the worldwide cloud market, combining for over half of the total share. Research from Synergy and Canalys places Amazon's market share between 32 and 35 percent, with Microsoft trailing closely at 15 to 17 percent. While smaller competitors like Alibaba report explosive percentage growth, their actual worldwide market share remains tiny, and legacy companies like IBM report sluggish 12 percent growth despite massive investments in hybrid cloud technology.
Despite their massive size and the inherent difficulty of sustaining high growth rates, AWS and Azure show no signs of slowing down significantly. Experts note that the industry is only scratching the surface of cloud adoption, as the vast majority of enterprise workloads remain locked in private data centers. This ongoing migration insulates the cloud sector from potential economic downturns and promises continued expansion for the market leaders.