Extracting value from cloud through digital convergence

The enterprise shift to the cloud was already well underway before the COVID-19 pandemic, but the pandemic increased the pace of the transformation. The dramatic increase in both remote work and a new digital economy increased the need for business applications, analytics, and artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML) deployed in the cloud. Even in the post-COVID economy, companies continual to accelerate their cloud transition. Due to this fast pace, finding the right cloud provider is key.

This is one of the top findings from Avasant’s new Cloud Platforms 2021 RadarView™ report, a comprehensive study on the cloud platform marketplace, taking a close look at the leaders, innovators, disruptors, and challengers in this market.

This report addresses the need for enterprises to accelerate their digital journeys, embrace the cloud, and identify the right cloud platform providers. It highlights the key trends in the cloud platform market and Avasant’s viewpoint on the direction of the market over the next 12 to 18 months.

Avasant evaluated 15 providers using three dimensions: product maturity, enterprise adaptability, and innovation road map. Of the 15 providers, eight are recognized as having brought the most value to the market over the past 12 months.

The RadarView recognizes platform providers in four categories:

• • Leaders: AWS and Microsoft
  • Innovators: Alibaba Cloud and Google
  • Disruptors: IBM and Oracle
  • Challengers: DigitalOcean and Lumen Technologies

The following figure from the full report illustrates these categories:

Anupam Govil, Partner with Avasant, congratulated the winners noting, “The pandemic pushed cloud adoption to the forefront. Cloud platform providers have become pivotal for enterprises rapidly shifting to a hybrid workplace and digital engagement model. Multicloud and hybrid cloud strategies are driving increased spending, spurring innovative and converged offerings.”

Some of the findings from the full report include the following:

• • Cloud and security continue to be top spending priorities for enterprises. More than 70% of enterprises are increasing their spending on cloud applications and infrastructure, while around 80% have increased spending on information security and privacy.
  • During the pandemic, even the government segment adopted cloud and leveraged its capabilities to tackle COVID-19 and social causes. For instance, it developed contact tracing applications to track the health of citizens, built systems to manage vaccination pre-screening and scheduling, and provided highly secure government portals to citizens.
  • Convergence of cloud with analytics and other emerging technologies such as AI/ML and business intelligence are used to address new use cases. For example, building data warehouses with real-time data analysis capabilities, which ensures secure sharing of data across organizations and develops applications with data analytics capabilities. This type of use case helps to get quick insights from data for better decision-making.
  • Cloud platform providers are partnering with service providers to reach sustainable development goals. In parallel, they are incubating startup communities and engaging with developers for sponsoring open-source projects to build solutions for enterprises.

“Business leaders believe cloud, data, and AI convergence are key for transformation. Organizations using cloud AI and analytics have a business advantage in the post-pandemic era,” said Taniya Chandra, Senior Analyst with Avasant. “Converged technology is seen across industries, from analyzing data for drug discovery to augmenting online education.”

The full report also features RadarView profiles of the top eight platform providers, including their solutions, offerings, and experience in assisting enterprises in digital transformation.

This Research Byte is a brief overview of the full Cloud Platform 2021 RadarView™  report (click for pricing).