Cloud database vendors lambasted by analyst for expense, 'vulnerable' products and poor support
Gartner takes AWS, Microsoft, Google, IBM and more to task in its inaugural Magic Quadrant for cloud database management systems
Gartner's inaugural Magic Quadrant for cloud database management systems (DBMS) lays out the flaws of the leading players in a rapidly growing market.
The analyst firm defines the cloud DBMS market as being "for products from vendors that supply fully provider-managed public or private cloud software systems that manage data in cloud storage". The data is stored in a cloud storage tier and may use multiple data models.
Gartner predicts that 75 per cent of all databases will be deployed or migrated to a cloud platform by 2022. It also forecast that cloud preference for data management will reduce the vendor landscape by 2023, while the growth in multicloud increases the complexity for data governance and integration.
Cloud DBMS revenue will account for half of the total DBMS market revenue within the next five years, it added.
Against these stats, Gartner has published its first DBMS Magic Quadrant, which assessed each vendor's individual strengths and weaknesses, the latter of which attracted some strong words from Gartner.
Google and Oracle nudge ahead of AWS, Microsoft, Google, SAP, IBM, Alibaba and Teradata in the 'Leaders' segment.
AWS was noted for its dominant market presence and received praise for the availability and reliability compared to its hyperscaler peers. However, Gartner took umbrage with its data integration issues and its reluctance to embrace a multi cloud world causes it to "lag behind" its rivals and ISVs.
"AWS, being the market leader, tends to think of its own cloud as the most important," stated Gartner.
It was also criticised for offering multiple services for multiple use cases, making it vulnerable to narrower, focused solutions from competitors.
"Over time, AWS normally adds functionality to catch up with these other vendors, but its initial releases can be vulnerable in this regard," the analyst firm added.
Microsoft drew plaudits for its "strong" vision for its cloud data ecosystem and the ubiquity and familiarity of its offerings across business customers allows it to leverage these relationships towards Azure adoption.
However, Gartner highlighted concerns about its "still emerging" cloud data ecosystem. It also criticised the cost of migrating to Azure's cloud database in comparison to on-premises deployments, which reflects a "lack of cost structure standardisation across Microsoft's broad Azure portfolio".
Gartner praised frontrunner Google Cloud for its focus on the enterprise, prioritising a strong channel system and its vision for multi and hybrid cloud models.
However, Gartner stated that clients have reported issues with Google Cloud's service and support, particularly for new customers, though it noted that the vendor has installed new leadership across its regions in a bid to remedy this.
It also criticised Google Cloud for its lack of vision for its cloud data ecosystem.
Fellow Magic Quadrant leader Oracle was praised for its Autonomous Database offering, its hybrid cloud approach and its focus on the enterprise space.
"Oracle is also gaining recognition as an enterprise cloud provider," Gartner noted.
"This makes Oracle Cloud a good choice for enterprises that use Oracle as a standard provider, where they can apply skills developed over many years for use in the cloud. Oracle Autonomous Database is also being adopted by customers new to Oracle who value a self-driving, enterprise DBMS."
The report cautioned Oracle for its cloud strategy, and that the only managed DBMS services available on its cloud are its own. Its market perception is also a hindrance to it, as it's on-prem products are "often perceived to be expensive and difficult to manage", though the vendor has made some headway with this as it moves to a new pay-as-you-go business model.
Elsewhere IBM's new chief exec Arvind Krishna was hailed for his focus on data and the cloud: "This focus on data management from the top might do much to revive momentum for one of the industry's longtime enterprise leaders."
Operating as both a hyperscaler and an open software provider, and with a "rich and mature" product set, will also work in Big Blue's favour, acording to the analyst's report.
IBM drew ire from customers over its support for existing products, promoting the IBM brand over its individual offerings and struggling to overcome the challenges of its legacy heritage.
Chinese giant Alibaba Cloud - the cloud arm of e-commerce titan Alibaba - was once again criticised for its limited presence in North America and EMEA, while ongoing geopolitical challenges may hamper its plans to grow in these markets.
Elsewhere in the Magic Quadrant, MarkLogic, Cloudera, InterSystems and Databricks fill out the ‘Visionaries' segment, Chinese players Huawei and Tencent stand alone in the ‘Niche Players' quarter and Snowflake and RedisLabs make up the ‘Challengers' slot.