The cloud computing race in 2020 will have a definite multi-cloud spin. Here’s a look at how the cloud leaders stack up, the hybrid market, and the SaaS players that run your company as well as their latest strategic moves.

Cloud computing in 2020 is more mature, going multi-cloud, and likely to become more focused on vertical and a sales ground war as the leading vendors battle for market share. 

Picking the top cloud services provider isn’t easy given that the answer — much like enterprise software and IT in general — boils down to “it depends.” Whether it’s Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud platform in infrastructure as a service, or IBM, Dell Technologies, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, and VMware in multi-cloud hybrid deployments, there are multiple variables for each enterprise. Ditto for software as a service, where the likes of Salesforce, Adobe, and Workday battle SAP and Oracle, an infrastructure- and database-as-a-service player. 

That said, a few key trends are emerging for cloud computing in 2020 that have shifted from 2019, 2018, and 2017. At a high level:

• The COVID-19 pandemic and the move to remote work and video conferencing are accelerating moves to the cloud. Enterprises increasingly are seeing the cloud as a digital transformation engine as well as a technology that improves business continuity. As work was forced to go remote due to stay-at-home orders tasks were largely done on cloud infrastructure. Collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams and Google Meet became cogs in the companies’ broader cloud ecosystem. 
• Multi-cloud is both a selling point and an aspirational goal for enterprises. Companies are well aware of vendor lock-in and want to abstract their applications so they can be moved across clouds. The multi-cloud theme is being promoted among legacy vendors that have created platforms that can plug into multiple clouds — often with a heavy dose of VMware or Red Hat. (See: Multi-Cloud: Everything you need to know about the biggest trend in cloud computing and Multicloud deployments become go-to strategy as AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud grab wallet share),
• The game is about data acquisition. The more corporate data that resides in a cloud the more sticky the customer is to the vendor. It’s no secret that cloud computing vendors are pitching enterprises on using their platforms to house data for everything from analytics to personalized experiences. 
• Artificial intelligence, analytics, IoT, and edge computing will be differentiators among the top cloud service providers — as will serverless and managed services. The market share grab has largely gone to AWS, which was early, adds services at a rapid clip, and is the go-to cloud service provider. AWS’ ability to upsell to AI, IoT, and analytics will be critical. Microsoft Azure is also looking to differentiate via AI and machine learning. Google Cloud Platform has gained ground due to its machine-learning know-how. 
• Sales tactics that play to fear, uncertainty, and doubt will be the norm. Toward the end of 2019 — not surprisingly right around AWS re:Invent — there appeared to be a mindshare battle in the press as the big three sniped at each other across multiple industries. Google Cloud has been hiring executives to sell into industries and has ramped its Anthos hybrid cloud effort to close its AWS and Azure sales gap. (See: What is cloud computing? Everything you need to know)
• Public cloud spending has hit an inflection point where it has passed traditional IT infrastructure for the first time in the second quarter of 2020, according to IDC. Spending on cloud environments, including public and private, increased 34.4% from a year ago. Non-cloud IT spending fell 8.
• Gartner’s Magic Quadrant report on public cloud providers noted that the “capability gap between hyperscale cloud providers has begun to narrow; however, fierce competition for enterprise workloads extends to secondary markets worldwide.” Indeed, the financials from AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud have all been strong.

With that backdrop, let’s get to the 2020 top cloud computing vendors. 

Infrastructure as a service

AWS was the first cloud computing and offering infrastructure as a service in 2008 and has never looked back as it launches new services at a breakneck pace and is creating its own compute stack that aims to be more efficient and pass those savings along. AWS has expanded well beyond cloud compute and storage. If processors based on Arm become the norm in the data center, the industry can thank the gravitational pull of AWS, which launched a second-generation Graviton processor and instances based on it. If successful, the Graviton and the Nitro abstraction layer can be the differentiator for AWS in the cloud wars. 

In the fourth quarter, AWS delivered revenue of nearly $10 billion to put it on a $40 billion annual revenue run rate. AWS annual revenue run rate accelerated to nearly $41 billion in the first quarter, as sales grew at a 33% clip. In the second quarter, the AWS revenue run rate was more than $43 billion. The trend is obvious. 

AWS continued to shine and represents most of its parent’s operating income but was overshadowed by Amazon’s e-commerce unit and the company’s COVID-19 response. Flexera’s State of the Cloud report highlights how AWS and Microsoft Azure are the two alpha cloud companies.

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Recent developments for AWS include the launch of AppFlow to design SaaS workflows, Keyspaces, and the general availability of the company’s Windows migration service and savings plans.