Infrastructure-as-a-Service
2018 Brand Leader Survey
Report

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
IaaS Brand Leader Survey Report
The 2018 IaaS brand leader surveys cover fourteen
Infrastructure-as-a-Service products.
This report includes the results of voting for six categories of
brand leadership for each service: Market, Price, Performance,
Reliability, Service & Support and Innovation.
Numerical survey data is available upon request. Please contact
us at info@itbrandpulse.com.
2

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
2018 Infrastructure-as-a-Service Brand Leader Survey Table of Contents Page
Brand Leader Survey Methodology 4
Brand Leader Voting Definitions 5
2018 IaaS Brand Leader Survey Winners Chart 6
Survey Respondent - Title/Job Description 8
Survey Respondent - Data Center Environment 9
Product Category Definitions 11
Summary Analysis 12
Auto Scaling-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 13
Backup & Restore-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 14
Batch Computing-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 15
Block Storage-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 16
Bulk Data Transfer-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 17
Cold Storage-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 18
Containers-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 19
Dedicated Servers-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 20
Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 21
File Storage-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 22
Object Storage-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 23
Serverless-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 24
SSD-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 25
Virtual Servers-as-a-Service 2018 Brand Leader Chart 26
About the Author 27
3

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
4
Infrastructure-as-a-Service
Brand Leader Survey Methodology
• Brand Leader reports are designed to measure the pulse of brand leadership in specific product
categories using results from independent, non-sponsored surveys with at least 200 respondents.
• The IaaS Brand Leader Survey was conducted in April, 2018.
– Respondents were solicited from over 1,000,000 members of 100+ online IT groups, and from the IT Brand
Pulse database of 150,000 IT professionals.
– Two hundred and two IT Pros responded to this survey.
– Responses were collected using an online survey engine.
• In each part, respondents were provided with a product category description, randomly-listed vendor
choices (plus an “Other” answer choice to add a vendor, if applicable), and were asked six questions:
1. Who do you perceive as the <product category> market leader?
2. Who do you perceive as the <product category> price leader?
3. Who do you perceive as the <product category> performance leader?
4. Who do you perceive as the <product category> reliability leader?
5. Who do you perceive as the <product category> service & support leader?
6. Who do you perceive as the <product category> innovation leader?
4
4

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
April 2018
IaaS Brand Leaders
Voted by IT Pros
Auto Scaling-as-a-Service AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Backup & Restore-as-a-
Service
AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Batch Computing-as-a-
Service
AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Block Storage-as-a-Service AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Bulk Data Transfer-as-a-
Service
AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Cold Storage-as-a-Service AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Containers-as-a-Service AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Dedicated Servers-as-a-
Service
AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Disaster Recovery-as-a-
Service
AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
File Storage-as-a-Service AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Object Storage-as-a-Service AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Serverless-as-a-Service AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
SSD-as-a-Service AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS
Virtual Servers-as-a-Service AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS AWS 5

Respondent Profiles
IaaS
2018 Brand Leader Survey

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Respondent Title/Job Description:
Data Center Manager
VAR/OEM
Security Administrator/Architect
Storage Administrator/Architect
Executive/Management
Other
Network Administrator/Architect
Server Administrator/Architect
IT Manager/Director
7

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Your environment is best described as:
Public Cloud/Data Center Provider
Other
Product Development
High-Performance Computing Data Center
Small-Medium Business Data Center
Enterprise Data Center
8

Survey Results
IaaS
2018 Brand Leader Survey

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Brand Leader Definitions
10

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
11
Product Category Definitions
• Auto Scaling-as-a-Service: Lets you automatically change the number of instances providing a particular compute workload. You set defined
metric and thresholds that determine if the platform adds or removes instances.
• Backup & Restore-as-a-Service: Backup and archival solutions allow files and folders to be backed up and recovered from the cloud, and
provide off-site protection against data loss. There are two components of backup—the software service that orchestrates backup/retrieval and
the underlying backup storage infrastructure.
• Batch Computing-as-a-Service: Run large-scale parallel and high-performance computing applications efficiently in the cloud.
• Block Storage-as-a-Service: Data stored in volumes and blocks, where files are split into evenly sized blocks. Each block has its own
address, but unlike objects they do not have metadata.
• Bulk Data Transfer-as-a-Service: A data transport solution that uses secure disks and appliances to transfer large amounts of data. Also
offers data protection during transit.
• Cold Storage-as-a-Service: Cold storage is a lower cost tier for storing data that is infrequently accessed and long-lived.
• Containers-as-a-Service: Quickly deploy a production ready Kubernetes, DC/OS, or Docker Swarm cluster.
• Dedicated Servers-as-a-Service: Instances that run on hardware that's dedicated to a single customer.
• Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service: Automates protection and replication of virtual machines. Offers health monitoring, recovery plans, and
recovery plan testing.
• File Storage-as-a-Service: Provides a simple interface to create and configure file systems quickly, and share common files. It’s shared file
storage without the need for a supporting virtual machine, and can be used with traditional protocols that access files over a network.
• Object Storage-as-a-Service: Object storage service, for use cases including cloud applications, content distribution, backup, archiving,
disaster recovery, and big data analytics.
• Serverless-as-a-Service: Integrate systems and run back end processes in response to events or schedules without provisioning or
managing servers.
• SSD-as-a-Service: High performance SSD storage.
• Virtual Servers-as-a-Service: Virtual servers allow users to deploy, manage, and maintain OS and server software. Instance types provide
combinations of CPU/RAM. Users pay for what they use with the flexibility to change sizes.
11

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
12
Summary Analysis
• AWS Dominates IT Pro Voting
– Amazon Web Services (AWS) was selected as Market, Price, Performance, Reliability,
Service & Support, and Innovation Leader for all 14 IaaS product categories.
• Azure and IBM Perceived as Best of the Rest
– Microsoft Azure was chosen runner-up for Market Leader in 8 product categories. IBM
Cloud placed second in 3 service categories.
• Respect Shown for On-Premises Leaders Offering Services
– NetApp places second in various brand leader categories for SSD and Block Storage.
VMware places third in some brand leader categories for Virtual Servers-as-a-Service.
• Category Where AWS was Most Dominant
– The Biggest Spread Between First and Second Place is in the Object Storage-as-a-
Service Market Leader category where the spread between AWS and Azure is 41%
• Category Where Competition was Closest to AWS
– Microsoft Azure closing in on AWS for Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service Market Leader,
trailing by only 7% in IT Pro voting.
12

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Auto Scaling-as-a-Service
13
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
AWS Microsoft
Azure
Google
Cloud
IBM Cloud Oracle Fujitsu OVH Alibaba
Cloud
NTT Virtustream
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support
leader for Auto Scaling-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Backup & Restore-as-a-Service
14
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
AWS Microsoft
Azure
Google
Cloud
IBM Cloud NetApp Oracle Alibaba
Cloud
NTT Virtustream Fujitsu OVH
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for Backup & Restore-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Batch Computing-as-a-Service
15
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
AWS IBM Cloud Google
Cloud
Microsoft
Azure
Oracle Fujitsu Virtustream Alibaba
Cloud
NTT OVH
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for Batch Computing-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Block Storage-as-a-Service
16
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
AWS NetApp Microsoft
Azure
IBM Cloud Google
Cloud
Virtustream Oracle NTT Alibaba
Cloud
Fujitsu OVH
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support
leader for Block Storage-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Bulk Data Transfer-as-a-Service
17
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
AWS IBM Cloud Microsoft
Azure
Google
Cloud
Oracle Virtustream Alibaba
Cloud
Fujitsu NTT OVH
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for Bulk Data Transfer-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Cold Storage-as-a-Service
18
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
AWS Microsoft
Azure
Google
Cloud
Oracle IBM Cloud Fujitsu NTT Alibaba
Cloud
OVH Virtustream
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for Cold Storage-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Containers-as-a-Service
19
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
AWS Google
Cloud
Microsoft
Azure
IBM Cloud Oracle Alibaba
Cloud
Virtustream OVH NTT Fujitsu
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for Containers-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Dedicated Servers-as-a-Service
20
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
AWS IBM Cloud Microsoft
Azure
Oracle Fujitsu Google
Cloud
OVH Alibaba
Cloud
NTT Virtustream
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for Dedicated Servers-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service
21
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
AWS Microsoft
Azure
IBM Cloud Oracle NetApp Google
Cloud
Virtustream Alibaba
Cloud
Fujitsu NTT OVH
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for Disaster Recovery-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
File Storage-as-a-Service
22
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
AWS Microsoft
Azure
Google
Cloud
NetApp Oracle IBM Cloud NTT OVH Fujitsu Virtustream Alibaba
Cloud
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for File Storage-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Object Storage-as-a-Service
23
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
AWS Microsoft
Azure
NetApp IBM Cloud Oracle Google
Cloud
OVH Alibaba
Cloud
NTT Virtustream Fujitsu
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for Object Storage-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Serverless-as-a-Service
24
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
AWS Microsoft
Azure
Google
Cloud
IBM Cloud NTT Oracle Fujitsu Virtustream Alibaba
Cloud
OVH
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for Serverless-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
SSD-as-a-Service
25
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
AWS NetApp Fujitsu Microsoft
Azure
IBM Cloud Google
Cloud
Oracle OVH Virtustream NTT Alibaba
Cloud
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for SSD-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
Virtual Servers-as-a-Service
26
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
50%
AWS Microsoft
Azure
VMware IBM Cloud Google
Cloud
Oracle Virtusream Alibaba
Cloud
Fujitsu OVH NTT
Market Price Performance Reliablity Innovation Service & Support
Who do you perceive as the Market,
Price, Performance, Reliability,
Innovation, and Service & Support leader
for Virtual Servers-as-a-Service?

April 2018 Brand Leader Survey
About the Author
27
Alec Berry is a research analyst at IT Brand
Pulse, former NCAA soccer player, and a
graduate of West Chester University.
alec.berry@itbrandpulse.com