IDC Reveals IaaS Vendor Market Leaders, Contenders in EMEA

 A new IDC MarketScape report from IDC Government Insights shows that the cloud infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) market is growing rapidly in the EMEA government sector, with both global and local suppliers making investments to increase their datacenter footprints around the region, broaden their portfolios, and enhance security. Government ICT buyers are also maturing their procurement and deployment capabilities.

The report, which provides a quantitative and qualitative assessment of 13 vendors that provide IaaS to the EMEA government sector, evaluates Akamai, Atos-Canopy, Amazon Web Services (AWS), BT, CenturyLink, CGI, Dell, HP, IBM, Microsoft, Rackspace, Telefónica, and Unisys.

The report will support decision makers in various activities of the cloud sourcing process, such as vendor selection, contract negotiation, service deployment, and integration with other towers of service.

BT, Amazon, CGI, and Dell were ranked as "leaders" in the report; Atos, HP, IBM, and Microsoft were "major players"; and Akamai, CenturyLink, Rackspace, Telefónica, and Unisys were "contenders", as revealed in the report.

"Government agencies that are procuring or planning to procure infrastructure as a service should take into consideration that the range of mature suppliers is expanding fast," said Massimiliano Claps, research director, IDC Government Insights. "To select the most appropriate vendor and service that can fulfill their business requirements, they should evaluate service capabilities, investments in security, and the robustness of the go-to-market model of each vendor, both in terms of current capabilities and future strategies."

According to the report, government CIOs, ICT sourcing managers, enterprise architects, and project managers that are in charge of IT infrastructure modernization programs should consider cloud infrastructure as a service offering, among other delivery models.

IDC further recommends that government CIOs and their teams should nurture competencies to manage hybrid environments. Cloud will not only supplement legacy delivery models but also complement outsourcing, application hosting, and managed services.

As a result, hybrid environments will require IT departments to become experts in service orchestration, security, and supplier relationship management, rather than gaining in-depth expertise in a single vendor offering.

IDC MarketScape criteria selection, weightings, and vendor scores represent IDC's best judgment about the market and specific vendors.

IDC analysts tailor the range of standard characteristics by which vendors are measured through structured discussions, surveys, and interviews with market leaders, participants, and end users. Market weightings are based on user interviews, buyer surveys, and the input of a review board of IDC experts in each market.

The analysts base individual vendor scores, and ultimately vendor positions in the IDC MarketScape, on detailed surveys and interviews with vendors, publicly available information, and end-user experiences in an effort to provide an accurate and consistent assessment of each vendor's characteristics, behavior, and capability.

The IDC MarketScape vendor analysis model is designed to provide an overview of the competitive fitness of IT, telecommunications, or industry-specific suppliers in a given market. The research methodology uses a rigorous scoring methodology based on both qualitative and quantitative criteria that results in a single graphical illustration of each vendor's position within a given market.

The MarketScapes provide a clear framework in which the product and service offerings, capabilities and strategies, and current and future market success factors of IT, telecommunications, or industry-specific vendors can be meaningfully compared.

Also, IDC Government Insights assists government policy, program, and IT leaders, as well as the suppliers that serve them, in making more effective technology decisions by providing accurate, timely, and insightful fact-based research and consulting services. Staffed by senior analysts with decades of government and IT industry experience, our global research analyzes and advises on business and technology issues facing federal/central and local/provincial governments.

International Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisory services, and events for the information technology market.

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