Penton's Talkin' Cloud Unveils the Top 100 Cloud Services Providers

NEW YORK, Oct. 9, 2014 /PRNewswire/ -- Penton's Technology Group today announced the results of the fourth annual Talkin' Cloud 100 report. The report unveils IBM as the world's Top 100 Cloud Service Provider (CSP), unseating Salesforce.com. The Top 100 CSPs generated more than $23.4 billion in combined cloud services revenues in 2013, up 48% from what they reported the previous year. The report recognizes top cloud service providers based on metrics such as annual cloud services revenue growth both in actual dollars and in percentage growth rates.

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Other key findings:

• About 78% of the companies leverage IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) platforms/service providers. The most commonly used provider is Amazon Web Services (EC2) (33%), followed by Microsoft Windows Azure (23%).
• Companies use a wide variety of SaaS (Software as a Service) solutions. The most commonly leveraged provider is Microsoft Office 365 (45%), followed by Citrix Systems (33%), Google Apps (30%) and Cisco Systems (30%).
• Fewer companies leveraged PaaS (Platform as a Service) platforms/service providers (68%). The most commonly leveraged provider is Amazon Web Services (25%), followed by Microsoft Windows Azure (21%), and Google App Engine (16%).
• Cloud services have remained largely stable year-to-year, 81% offering SaaS, 71% offering IaaS and 54% offering PaaS.
• Cloud services hosting remained largely stable in 2013, with 68% hosting in co-location centers, 50% on public clouds, 34% in their own data centers and 27% within customer data centers.

The Talkin' Cloud 100 report is based on data from Talkin' Cloud's online survey, conducted January through May 2014.

"We're seeing rapid fire growth in the emergent cloud computing business and stiffening competition worldwide," said Marcia Parker, Executive Director, Penton Technology Group.

"There's a land grab in the cloud computing market," said Charlene O'Hanlon, Senior Executive Editor of Talkin' Cloud. "The Talkin' Cloud 100 companies are leading that land grab."

"Cloud services marks the next phase of IT service offerings," said Jessica Davis, Executive Editor of MSPmentor, a Talkin' Cloud sister site. "It's not a surprise to see companies from the MSPmentor 501 list of top managed service providers, such as mindSHIFT, also make it onto the Talkin' Cloud100 list."

In addition to spotlighting this year's top providers, the Talkin' Cloud 100 report profiles:

• Cloud Services Providers (CSP): CSPs offer SaaS, IaaS and/or PaaS to partners and customers. Featured CSPs include Arkadin and TekLinks.
• Cloud Services Brokerages (CSB): CSBs, or cloud brokers, recommend and resell multiple cloud services to customers, and often integrate those services. Featured CSBs include Ingram Micro and Tech Data.
• Cloud Services Aggregators (CSA): CSAs, or cloud aggregators, typically offer a portal that allows VARs and MSPs to source multiple third-party cloud services for customers. Featured CSAs include Intermedia and SherWeb.
• MSPs (Managed Service Providers) with cloud services expertise: MSPs proactively monitor and manage customers' on-premises and cloud-based systems. Featured MSPs include mindSHIFT and Computer Services Inc.
• VARs (value-added resellers) with cloud services expertise: VARs offer a range of IT consulting, deployment, integration and management services to customers. Featured VARs include D+H and Avanxo

Talkin' Cloud, the first online media destination for channel partners working in the cloud, is the go-to resource for CSPs, VARs and MSPs profiting from cloud computing. Talkin' Cloud features a daily blog, research, Channel Expert Hour Webcasts and FastChat videos.  

The full report is available at: http://www.talkincloud.com/tc100.

About Penton's Channel Brands
Penton's channel brands define emerging IT markets and disrupt established IT markets. The brands' channel-centric online communities include MSPmentor (www.MSPmentor.net), The VAR Guy (www.TheVARguy.com) and Talkin' Cloud (www.TalkinCloud.com). The channel brands are part of the Penton Technology Group, which include Windows IT Pro (http://www.windowsitpro.com), SQL Server Pro (http://www.sqlmag.com), SharePoint Pro (http://www.sharepointpromag.com) and Windows Supersite (www.winsupersite.com) serving IT professionals.

About Penton
Penton drives performance every day for more than 16 million professionals each and every day. They rely on us to deliver: Insights, information & workflow tools to inform critical business decisions; networking & community to engage them with industry peers & partners; and marketing services to advance their business performance & deliver ROI.

Penton is a growth company with a track-record of strong performance and success and is backed by its co-owners: MidOcean Partners and U.S. Equity Partners II, an investment fund sponsored by Wasserstein & Co., LP.

For additional information on the company and its businesses, visit www.penton.com. 

Media Contacts:
Charlene O'Hanlon
Senior Executive Editor
Charlene.o'[email protected]
212.204.4338

Jessica Davis
Executive Editor
[email protected] 
212.204.4380

SOURCE Penton