Executive Summary
Cloud computing is reshaping the technology world. Not only it is reinventing the competitive landscape, it is also creating significant growth opportunities. It is no wonder that the solution and service providers believe it to be the next growth engine.
In order to exploit this opportunity, the providers are aggressively investing in Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A), partnerships, alliances, Intellectual Property (IP), datacenters, Research and Development (R&D) centers, etc.
Everest Group tracker for enterprise cloud investments analyzed ~200 market updates emanating from over 60 major enterprise solution and service providers to understand their key focus areas and drivers for cloud investments. For Q1 2012, our analysis suggests that most of investments were focused on creating partnerships and alliances.
This is understandable given that it is difficult for providers (especially independent software vendors) to scale up cloud services exclusively on their own as they have to rely on niche providers, marketing channels, industry bodies, and other organizations. Moreover, many providers already have a healthy channel partner network and they are investing in making them competent and certified to offer cloud services on the provider’s platform.
This report also analyzes the impact these investments have on an enterprise buyer. There are various aspects a buyer needs to understand and address regarding the investments done, not only by its existing providers, but also by newer providers in the cloud ecosystem.
The key themes this report explores are focused on cloud investments by various solution and service providers. This report analyzes:
- Key areas of investments
- Investment focus of providers
- Major drivers of investments
- Strategies for buyers
