Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service, Worldwide Published 16 July 2019 - ID G00365830 - 43 min read The distinctions among providers are apparent in the market for cloud IaaS in terms of worldwide enterprise adoption, capabilities and service availability. Infrastructure and operations leaders should evaluate providers with broad capabilities and a positive track record for customer success. Market Definition/Description This document was revised on 19 July 2019. The document you are viewing is the corrected version. For more information, see the Corrections page on gartner.com. Cloud computing is a style of computing in which scalable and elastic IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service using internet technologies. Cloud infrastructure as a service (IaaS) is a type of cloud computing service; it parallels the infrastructure and data center initiatives of IT. In the context of this Magic Quadrant, cloud IaaS is defined as a standardized, highly automated offering, where compute resources, complemented by storage and networking capabilities, are owned by a service provider and offered to the customer on demand. The resources are scalable and elastic in near real time, and metered by use. Self-service interfaces are exposed directly to the customer, including a web-based UI and an API. The resources may be single-tenant or multitenant, and hosted by the service provider or onpremises in the customer’s data center. Thus, this Magic Quadrant covers both public and private cloud IaaS offerings. Enterprise adoption of cloud IaaS often begins with modern workloads, emphasizing developer productivity and business agility. But an increasing amount of cloud IaaS is being bought for traditional IT, with an emphasis on cost reduction, safety and security. Infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders typically lead the sourcing when cloud IaaS is to be used for traditional IT. By contrast, sourcing for modern workloads is typically driven by enterprise architects, application development leaders and digital business leaders. This Magic Quadrant considers both sourcing patterns and their associated customer behaviors and requirements. Many enterprises require third-party managed service providers in order to effectively utilize cloud IaaS. In those cases, enterprises should use this Magic Quadrant in conjunction with the “Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud Infrastructure Managed Service Providers, Worldwide,” which covers third-party managed service providers. Understanding the Vendor Profiles, Strengths and Cautions Cloud IaaS providers that target enterprise and midmarket customers generally offer a highquality service, with excellent availability, good performance, high security and good customer support. Exceptions will be noted in this Magic Quadrant’s evaluations of individual providers. Note that, when we say “all providers,” we specifically mean “all the evaluated providers 1 included in this Magic Quadrant,” not all cloud IaaS providers in general. Keep the following in mind when reading the vendor profiles:  All the providers have a public cloud IaaS offering. A few also have an industrialized private cloud offering or have made announcements detailing such plans where every customer is on standardized infrastructure and cloud management tools. Although, this may or may not resemble the provider’s public cloud service in either architecture or quality. A single architecture and feature set and cross-cloud management, for both public and private cloud IaaS, make it easier for customers to combine and migrate across service models as their needs dictate. They also enable the provider to use its engineering investments more effectively. Most of the providers also offer custom private clouds.  All of the providers target midmarket businesses and enterprises, as well as other companies that use technology at scale. Some of the providers may also target small businesses and startups. Just because a provider targets a segment, however, does not necessarily mean that it is well suited to that segment’s needs. Furthermore, not all providers have the capacity to serve very-large-scale customers, and some have capacity constraints in particular regions.  All the providers offer basic cloud IaaS — compute, storage and networking resources as a service. They also offer additional value-added capabilities as well, notably cloud software infrastructure services — typically middleware and databases as