The top 10 public cloud providers

Barely 20 years have passed since the term cloud came into widespread use. Yet, in that time, we’ve seen many cloud providers enter the market, with new ones emerging all the time. However, a few providers have gotten to and remained at the top of the market year after year.

Here are the top 10 public cloud providers for 2023.

1. Amazon Web Services (AWS)

AWS is currently the leading cloud provider, with millions of users worldwide and a market share of over 30 percent. Amazon launched it in 2006, and it’s since become one of the most popular cloud providers with a large community of active users and developers.

AWS serves 245 countries and territories with 102 availability zones within 32 geographic regions. It offers over 200 fully featured services, including compute, storage, networking, databases, analytics, and machine learning. Furthermore, they are constantly innovating and adding new features.

AWS boasts over 140 security standards and certifications, satisfying compliance requirements for customers worldwide.

2. Microsoft Azure

Azure has a market share of over 20 percent, making it a runner-up in global-scale cloud providers. Like AWS, it offers a wide range of services, has a global reach, and is committed to security and compliance.

Compared to AWS, Azure focuses more on artificial intelligence, machine learning, and hybrid cloud capabilities. Azure is an excellent choice to run your applications and workloads across on-premises and cloud environments.

Azure is more integrated with Microsoft’s other products and services. If you already use Microsoft products and services, such as Office 365 or Dynamics 365, then Azure can be a good choice because it can help you integrate them with your cloud applications.

Azure is generally more cost-effective than AWS, especially for small businesses.

3. Google Cloud Platform

At roughly 10 percent of the market share, GCP is the third most popular cloud provider choice. It’s available in over 200 countries and territories and 115 zones across the globe.

If you already use Google products, such as Google Workspace or Google Cloud Platform, then GCP can be perfect for you as it integrates well with these products. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is a suite of cloud computing services that runs on the same infrastructure that Google uses for its end-user products, such as Google Search and YouTube.

Google is a go-to option for personal and work-related use, and many end users are already familiar with its solutions. For example, Google Workspace, formerly G Suite, is a suite of productivity and collaboration tools running on the same infrastructure as GCP. It includes Gmail, Docs, Sheets, Slides, Calendar, Drive, Meet, Chat, and more.

GCP also partners with many other companies and invests heavily in innovation, research, and development to ensure you stay ahead of the curve. GCP offers a wide range of machine learning services to build ML models without coding experience, serverless and edge computing, and container service, making it easy to deploy and manage containers.

4. Alibaba Cloud

Alibaba Cloud is the leading cloud provider in China, with a 42.4 percent market share, and the Asia Pacific, with a 19.6 percent market share. It’s generally a good choice if you are targeting the Chinese market.

Launched in 2009, it has since grown into the world’s third-largest player in the IaaS market, with more than one million paying customers. It’s a reliable and scalable cloud platform that can be used to run a wide range of applications.

Alibaba Cloud offers various computing services, including virtual machines, containers, serverless computing, storage, and networking services, including virtual private networks, load balancing, and content delivery networks.

Having covered the four largest cloud providers globally, together accounting for 76.7% of the total market share (according to Gartner’s 2022 market share research), let’s now look at some of the less obvious yet good cloud providers today.

5. IBM Cloud

IBM Cloud combines platform as a service (PaaS) with infrastructure as a service (IaaS), offering a wide range of services, including compute, storage, networking, databases, analytics, and machine learning. It is a good choice for businesses that need to run their applications on-premises and in the cloud.

Thanks to its strong reputation for security and reliability and for being a traditional enterprise company, IBM is a popular choice among Fortune 500 companies. IBM Cloud also offers services specifically designed for specific industries, such as healthcare, financial services, and manufacturing.

6. Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI)

Launched in 2016, OCI belongs among the newer clouds available. It’s a reliable, scalable, secure, and affordable cloud platform that offers a wide range of features and services to meet the needs of businesses of all sizes.

OCI Cloud has a 99.95% uptime SLA, is scalable, offers several security features, is powered by high-performance CPUs and SSDs, has competitive pricing, has a global network of data centers, and is flexible. In addition to these key features, OCI Cloud also offers a number of other features and services, such as managed Kubernetes, serverless computing, machine learning, and IoT.

Read also: Basic principles for cloud cost optimization

7. Tencent Cloud

Tencent Cloud is China’s second-largest public cloud platform, growing rapidly in other regions. Like other public clouds, Tencent Cloud offers many services, including cloud computing, data analytics, and artificial intelligence.

It’s also known for its gaming services, and it offers several features designed for game developers, multi-player voice chat, voice messaging, and others. For example, Huya and Douyu, two of mainland China’s biggest game live-streaming operators, run on Tencent Cloud.

8. DigitalOcean

DigitalOcean is an American cloud service provider based in New York City that offers simple and affordable cloud solutions.

You can design your hosting package, charged per hour or month. It offers a wide variety of plans for just a few dollars a month. DigitalOcean is a good choice for developers and small-to-medium-sized businesses needing a reliable, affordable, easy-to-use cloud platform.

The products include all the popular services, including compute, storage, networking, and databases.

9. UpCloud

UpCloud, a cloud hosting provider based in Finland, offers a GDPR-compliant cloud-native product portfolio with a wide range of services, including virtual machines, storage, and networking. It’s an Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) platform offering high performance and low latency.

With 10,000+ customers, it might be among the smaller cloud providers on this list, but it provides the “world’s fastest cloud servers with 100% uptime SLA from multiple data centers around the world in Asia, Europe, and the US” (source: UpCloud).

10. Akamai (Linode)

Akamai, formerly Linode, has a global network of data centers, so your applications can be hosted close to your users. They offer regional support, with data centers in 14 regions worldwide, including Europe.

Akamai Connected Cloud is an expansive edge and cloud platform designed for cloud computing, security, and content delivery. It offers fundamental cloud services like compute, storage, networking, and database management necessary for businesses to build, deploy, and safeguard online applications.

Choosing a cloud provider

When choosing a public cloud provider, there are a few factors that you should consider:

• Services you need: Make sure the provider offers the services you need, such as compute, storage, networking, and databases.
• Features and functionality: Consider the features and functionality that are important to you, such as scalability, security, and performance.
• Pricing: Make sure that the pricing is competitive and that you understand the terms and conditions.
• Support: Make sure the provider offers good support, so you can get help when needed.

Read also: Advantages of cloud computing

Revolgy is a certified partner of Google Cloud Platform and Amazon Web Services, two of the leading cloud providers in the world. If you’re considering switching to the cloud, we can help you find the best solution for your business, optimize costs, and secure your environment. Contact us for a free consultation.