Report: Increased cloud usage secures spots for AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud as the top 3 providers

A new report by Flexera reveals that AWS, Azure and Google Cloud Platform are the top three public cloud providers. This year Azure reached an important milestone: it closed the gap with AWS while other cloud providers have not shown much growth. For each public cloud provider, respondents specified whether they’re running significant workloads in that cloud, running some workloads, experimenting, plan to use it or had no plans to use it.

It’s important to note that adoption — meaning an organization is using a cloud provider — is only one factor influencing revenue growth for the provider.

In addition to adoption (if an organization is using a cloud provider), usage levels are an important metric as well. As organizations increase overall cloud usage, they tend to gravitate toward market leaders. Data from this year’s survey indicates Azure seems to be either closing the gap — or has slightly surpassed — AWS with some users.

As the first large-scale cloud provider, AWS is used more frequently by organizations that have been using the cloud over a longer period and are heavy cloud users. Across all respondents, 81% of heavy cloud use organizations use AWS compared with 80% using Azure. Among organizations with moderate cloud use, Azure has a slight lead and enjoys higher adoption for organizations that are light users. Although Google Cloud Platform remains in third place among all maturity levels, its popularity is significantly higher (51%) amongst organizations with heavy use of the cloud.

Flexera’s survey was sourced from a panel of 753 technical and business professionals who are independent from Flexera customers and prospects. The survey was conducted in late 2021.

Read the full report by Flexera.