Top 100 cloud service providers see 37% revenues growth

A survey conducted by Nine Lives Media (NLM) recorded the 37% rise in revenues across the top 100 cloud service providers (CSPs) in 2012 compared to 2011.

"Overall, the cloud market is healthy, growing – and attracting more channel partners by the day," NLM's Talkin' Cloud 100 report (40-page / 375KB PDF) said.

According to the survey, conducted between January and May this year, six of the 100 CSPs made more than $1 billion in "annual cloud revenues" in 2012. All the companies in the top 100 generated revenues greater than $3m.

Salesforce, Amazon, Microsoft, Google, SAP and Oracle enjoyed the biggest growth in annual cloud service revenues in 2012 compared to 2011, it said.

The report also chartered a rise in the number of CSPs that refer to themselves as 'cloud services brokerages' (CSBs). According to the survey, 42.5% of the top 100 CSPs regard themselves as being CSBs, up from 34.8% in 2011.

"The top cloud channel trend involves the rise of Cloud Services Brokerages –which essentially integrate multiple cloud platforms (Google Apps, Salesforce.com, Workday, etc.) for end-customers," the report said. "Cloud Sherpas, ranked No. 39 on our list, has bet its business on the CSB trend."

The survey shows that there is "accelerating cloud momentum across the IT channel," NLM said in its report.

"Big vendors (Microsoft, Google, SAP, Oracle, etc.) now have full-blown channel partner programs in place," it said. "Established distributors like Ingram Micro Cloud now have cloud aggregator services. And next-generation cloud distributors like Excel Micro continue to grow rapidly."

"The cloud market has also opened the door for next generation integration and migration companies – such as Cloud Sherpas and SADA Systems. And a new range of channel-centric management tools – such as 365 Command for Office 365 – has emerged to help VARs (value added reseller) and MSPs (managed service providers) with their customer maintenance commitments," it added.

NLM said, though, that there are still improvements that can be made to services offered by cloud providers.

"Some cloud channel partner programs force customers (and partners) to pay a full-year’s service fee up front – not exactly the pay-as-you-go model that customers have come to demand," NLM said in its report. "Also, some channel partners continue to struggle amid the shift from orphaned on-premises products (such as Microsoft Windows Small Business Server) to potential cloud alternatives (Office 365, Google Apps, Zoho)."