From February 2015 onwards Compare the Cloud will be publishing a regular set of monthly #CloudInfluence league tables. While there are various free tools that can provide an indication of social influence, the Compare the Cloud #CloudInfluence league tables, are based on far broader analysis of all major global news, blogs, forums, and social media interaction over the past 90 days.
The January league tables provide a snapshot taken on the last day of January of the respective influence of both organisations and individuals over the last quarter. Published in early February these league tables provide readers with unique insights into who the most influential organisations and individuals in the Cloud arena really are.
January 2015: ComparetheCloud.net Global 50 #CloudInfluence Organisations
The top 6 global organisations with influence in Cloud are, as you might expect, the major global Cloud and technology vendors. In order of influence these are:
1. Microsoft which had a host of recent cloud announcements;
2. SAP which recently announced strong 2014 Results, saying that its Cloud business would drive future growth;
3. Amazon which recently announced that one million customers actively use its Cloud services;
4. Apple which recently posted historic first quarter results and record profits not just for Apple, but for any public company, ever!
5. Oracle which also made a whole series of cloud announcements; and then
6. IBM which reported disappointing 2014 Results, but that included strong growth in Cloud revenues. IBM was also the subject of significant negative sentiment following wildly speculative opinions about job losses that were patently absurd in their predicted volume.
Thereafter the field opens right up with analyst firm Gartner appearing in 7th, followed by VMWare which is the focus of much takeover speculation in 8th and with Amazon Web Services, the firm’s Cloud services business for which revenues will soon be broken out separately, appearing in 9th overall. In 10th was Akamai which recently releases its third quarter 2014 ‘State of the Internet’ report.
Just outside the top ten are Google, another of the major global Cloud players; IDC, the analyst firm; Amazon Webmail, the third entry for Amazon; and Citrix, another firm that was the subject of significant negative sentiment around potential job losses.
The remainder of the top 20 was comprised of Adobe, Tata Consultancy Services., Yahoo! News, Google Drive (a second appearance for Google) and Hutchison Whampoa, the Hong Kong-based conglomerate which says that it’s in exclusive talks to buy mobile network provider 02 to combine with its existing 3 network in the UK.
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 At 24 and 26 were Intel and Cisco – both of which harbour Cloud ambitions. Also telecom vendors Ericsson at 34 and Huawei at 39.Other notable appearances in the January 2015 ComparetheCloud.net Global 50 list of #CloudInfluence Organisations include:
- Â At 31 was the European Space Agency which has recently built a private Cloud platform with Red Hat.
- Â IBM makes a second appearance at 43 with SmartCloud as does Microsoft at 44 with Microsoft Office for Android.
For those more focused on local markets, as we are here in the UK, the top half dozen #CloudInfluence Organisations in the UK were:
1. Aria Networks, a business in the UK that makes network planning and design software for the telecommunications industry, which made a series of Cloud oriented announcements.
2. GDS, the Government Digital Service, which announced that it had agreed a two year extension with cloud service provider Carrenza to continue to be a primary supplier hosting GOV.UK.
3. Business Monitor International, which published a number of its Q1 2015 Information Technology Reports on cloud computing services in various international markets.
4. The UK government itself after the Cabinet Office detailed a series of security questions for suppliers wishing to provide services through the upcoming sixth iteration of the G-Cloud framework
5. Compare the Cloud, as we continue to provide constructive comment and informative insights on all things Cloud both in the UK and beyond.
6. The European Commission, as the Directorate-General for Informatics (Digit) at the European Commission released a tender for a framework to acquire its first cloud services.
We hope you have enjoyed our first #CloudInfluence league table, each month Compare the Cloud will be publishing the top 50 organisations and the top 50 individuals, as well as a spotlight on the UK’s cloud influence. For more information on the #CloudInfluence League Tables please contact [email protected].