AWS finally facing competition on cloud - analyst

IBM and Microsoft starting to give Amazon a run for its money following stellar growth in Q2, according to Synergy Research

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is finally facing some "tough competition" in the cloud infrastructure services space, an analyst has claimed, with Microsoft and IBM leading the charge.

According to Synergy Research, Q2 is the first quarter that AWS can no longer claim it is bigger than its four nearest competitors - Salesforce, Microsoft, IBM and Google - combined as its growth shows signs of slowing.

Total cloud infrastructure service revenues (including IaaS, PaaS and private/hybrid cloud) reached £3.7bn in the three months to 30 June, Synergy said, up 45 per cent year on year.

Although AWS remains the market's undisputed silverback, with quarter revenues now exceeding $1bn, its revenues failed to grow on a sequential basis.

While AWS revenues leapt 49 per cent on an annual comparison - a shade faster than the overall market - Microsoft saw cloud infrastructure revenues boom 164 per cent year on year while IBM's revenues zoomed up 86 per cent.

"It has become clear that AWS finally has some tough competition to face" said Synergy chief analyst John Dinsdale.

"Until this quarter it could claim that it was bigger than its four nearest competitors, but now at least one jewel has fallen from its crown. While it remains a formidable leader of the market, Microsoft is making some huge strides in IaaS and PaaS while IBM now has clear leadership in the private & hybrid infrastructure services segment."