Microsoft is Pulling Ahead of the Pack Chasing Amazon

RENO, NV, May 1, 2014

New Q1 data from Synergy Research Group shows that Microsoft has grown its cloud infrastructure service revenues remarkably in the last year and is now pulling away from the pack of operators that are chasing Amazon (AWS). Amazon retains its dominant position, with greater market share than its four nearest rivals combined, but Microsoft has now established itself as the clear number two in the market.

With most of the major operators having now released their earnings data for Q1, Synergy estimates that quarterly cloud infrastructure service revenues (including IaaS, PaaS and private & hybrid cloud) have reached $3.5 billion, with trailing twelve-month revenues amounting to $12 billion. With the total market growing at an annual rate of almost 50%, Amazon, Microsoft, IBM and Google have all gained market share over the last four quarters. Total Amazon AWS revenues are now well in excess of $1 billion per quarter, with nearly all of that coming from cloud infrastructure services. IBM and Microsoft too can claim impressive cloud revenues, but in their cases much of the cloud revenue comes from software/SaaS, cloud-related hardware products or associated professional and technical services.

“Microsoft’s cloud growth really is impressive” said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst and Research Director at Synergy Research Group. “A combination of marketing muscle and credibility with the target audience is helping it to make great strides. Nonetheless, Amazon’s revenues are still more than three times those of Microsoft and it will remain in a league of its own for the foreseeable future.”