12 competitors that could get in the way of Google Cloud's quest to catch up with Amazon in the clou
- Google Cloud's scrambling to catch up with Amazon Web Services and Microsoft.
- However, it also has other rising competitors in the cloud like Oracle, IBM, Alibaba, and Tencent.
- Artificial intelligence and storage startups also compete with specific products from Google Cloud.
Google Cloud is laser-focused on winning a bigger slice of the cloud market from rivals Amazon Web Services and Microsoft. Right now, Google Cloud has 6.1% market share, compared to AWS at 40.8% and Microsoft at 19.7%, according to Gartner.
It also lags behind Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant Alibaba, which has 9.5% market share.
"You got competition coming from the other clouds on the eastern side of the planet," CSS Insight research chief Nick McQuire told Insider. "Alibaba is coming into areas Google is highly interested in. Emerging markets will be the next frontier for cloud. It may not always be western cloud providers. We may see more head to head battles with the Asian providers."
Google also has other competitors coming up from the rear:
IBM and Oracle have been increasing their cloud presence, as has French cloud computing company OVH.
And other companies, while not specifically focused on cloud computing, also compete directly with some of Google Cloud's products.
For example, once Salesforce closes its $27.7 billion acquisition of Slack, Google Cloud's Workspace office software suite will have another competitor at its heels, while several startups butt heads with the firm in artificial intelligence and storage. Though, worth noting that Futurum Research analyst Daniel Newman admits that these are likely to be "gobbled up" by tech giants if they're really interesting.
Here are 12 of Google Cloud's rising competitors, according to analysts:
IBM
IBM has been battling it out with AWS, Microsoft, and Google Cloud to win over cloud customers, including in industries like healthcare and finance. Its massive $34 billion acquisition of Red Hat shows it's serious about expanding its cloud business, especially in hybrid cloud – which allows customers to run their applications on both private data centers and the cloud.
"AWS and Microsoft remain Google Cloud's prime competitors but we are seeing many new competitors across different areas of its business. For example, as it pushes harder into vertical solutions, IBM emerges as a key challenger," McQuire said.
Oracle
Oracle has long been a giant in databases, but it's also been expanding its reach into cloud.
Oracle counts Zoom as one of its major customer wins, as Zoom tapped Oracle's cloud capabilities to help it scale during the pandemic as it faced peak demand – although AWS is still Zoom's preferred cloud provider.
Salesforce and Slack
Salesforce announced last December that it would buy the office messaging app Slack for $27.7 billion in its largest deal yet. It closed the acquisition on Wednesday.
When they join forces, they will be challenge the workplace communication tools that are part of Google Workspace, or its suite of cloud office software.
VAST Data
VAST Data builds a data storage platform, making it a rising competitor to Google's Cloud Storage service, Newman says.
It's raised $263 million in total and is valued at $3.7 billion, according to PitchBook.
Pure Storage
The $5 billion company Pure Storage builds data storage hardware and software products and is also a competitor to Google's Cloud Storage services, according to Newman.
Groq
The artificial intelligence startup Groq builds Tensor Processing Units, or chips specifically for AI and machine learning.
Groq's technology has its roots at Google, which first designed TPUs, as well as the open source AI project TensorFlow. Groq has raised a total of $362.55 million, according to PitchBook, and Newman said that Groq could be a rising competitor to Google Cloud's AI products.
OVHcloud
OVHcloud is a French cloud computing company that offers both cloud services and private servers. Google Cloud is expanding globally, but OVH is a competitor in Europe. It has more than 1.6 million customers.
Alibaba
The Chinese e-commerce and cloud giant Alibaba actually has a bigger market share than Google Cloud. Worldwide, it has 9.5% of the cloud market share, according to Gartner. This means that as Google Cloud expands into Asia, it's going to be facing fierce competition.
"As it expands into China or emerging markets in APAC or Africa, it is increasingly bumping into Alibaba as well," McQuire said.
Tencent
The Chinese tech giant Tencent, known for developing video games and the messaging app WeChat, also offers cloud services.
As Google Cloud expands into Asia, the competition will be tough as cloud giants like Tencent already have an advantage there.
Algorithmia
Algorithmia is an AI startup that helps developers with building smarter applications and machine learning models.
Google Cloud is known for its prowess in AI, but McQuire says AI startups like Algorithmia are swooping into the field. Algorithmia has raised a total of $38.08 million, according to PitchBook.
DataRobot
The AI startup DataRobot helps data scientists with building and managing machine learning models to drive better business outcomes for their companies – making it a competitor to Google Cloud's wide array of AI offerings, according to McQuire.
DataRobot has raised a total of $1.25 billion and is valued at $6.55 billion, according to PitchBook.
HPE
HPE's business has largely been based on on-premise data centers. As Google Cloud expands more into hybrid cloud with its product Anthos — which allows customers to run their applications on private data centers or any cloud — it's competing with firms like HPE.
"It is increasingly coming up against non-traditional competitors in the on prem space such as HPE," McQuire said. "The reality is, as it expands, its competitor base changes dramatically, some of which are also key partners as well."
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