Amazon AWS saw a small increase in its overall index (106.6, +0.4%) score, primarily driven by Sentiment and Security scores increases. Sentiment (100.8, +1.7%) increased on activity related to their perceived depth of service, exemplified by the periodic table of AWS and IoT solutions being built on AWS. While not directly tied to the security of AWS per se, AWS’s Security score (107.0, +1.6%) rose after an Iconworld announcement of blockchain capability now being available to applications running in Amazon Web Services.

Google Cloud’s overall index score (80.4, +0.3%) was relatively unchanged. Sentiment (102, +2.0%) increased alongside much attention on its Alooma acquisition, but concerns voiced at the end of the week about limitations to only GCP that leave AWS and Azure customers out in the cold may eventually tamp down that excitement.

Microsoft Azure experienced no appreciable change to its overall index score (104.2, -0.1%) despite a dip in Sentiment (99.6, -1.1%). Microsoft Azure also saw a slight increase it its marketplace size from 6,402 to 6,448, fractionally raising its Adaptability score (126.7, +0.3%).

Summary
The week’s Liftr Cloud Index was essentially flat, with small gains across most of the tracked CSPs based Sentiment improvement, exclusive of Microsoft who saw a drop in that attribute. Microsoft Azure continues chase AWS for the #1 ranking on the overall index. Alibaba, volatile as always, clocked in with the largest gain in Sentiment, which helped drive the largest overall gain as well for the Chinese company. Alibaba Cloud is now less than 17 points away from Google Cloud on the overall index.

News, Analysis, Commentary & Opinion

Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure continues to modernize its cloud offering with a greater embrace of Kubernetes and the first beta of a new authentication and password reset that will combine the two processes and streamline those tasks. As more customers flock to the service, tools like Azure AD can help with simplifying security and access. At the same time, taking AD to the cloud may bring existing security vulnerabilities to off-prem environments, so businesses need to expand their security activities to ensure compliance.

Oracle Cloud
Not wanting to stand in the shadows as IBM Think 2019 drove news cycles, Oracle Cloud tried to get into the spotlight with its partner Wipro announcing the QuMIC service to help accelerate customers moving to the Oracle Cloud. It additionally expanded functionality for external health checks as a way to drive better confidence in applications being deployed in its cloud, enabling them to be measured for effectiveness around the globe.

Other Cloud News
Power efficient cloud data centers may have a new CPU option as Arm unveiled new 7nm Neoverse CPUs specifically targeted at cloud service providers and future 5G providers. These power-sipping CPUs promise to deliver the performance and scalability that CSPs demand while giving the industry leader some additional competition.

Earnings

Baidu

Chinese Internet company Baidu’s cloud business’s fourth quarter revenue doubled year over year, reaching 1.1 billion Yuan in revenue. (about $160 million, but check my math)

Robin Li, Co-Founder, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer said, “Baidu Cloud has seen strong growth in both revenue and customer base, and is expanding AI solutions across different industry verticals such as telecom, manufacturing and financial services and transportation.”

Baidu has seen success in AI-powered telecom customer call center applications and is seeing more interest in that vertical market, as well as from the financial sector for its call center applications.

Mr. Li points out that cloud-enabled AI solutions may initially have low margins. However, its margin improves each time Baidu completes another AI solution within a vertical market. And the AI itself improves as the machine learning models accumulate vertical market experience. In other words, AI solutions scale well, particularly for profit margins.

Events

Mobile World Congress (MWC) Barcelona: Barcelona, Spain, February 25-28, 2019
Liftr Cloud Insights will be scanning the news from Barcelona. MWC is not specifically a cloud or data center event, but 5G and IoT rollout will have dramatic effects on edge computing infrastructure and cloud deployments.

KeyBanc Emerging Technology Summit: San Francisco, February 26-27, 2019
Liftr Cloud Insights Principal Analyst Paul Teich will participate in emerging technology discussions at KeyBanc Capital Market’s 14th Annual ETS.

SXSW Interactive: Austin, March 8-13, 2019
Liftr Cloud Insights Principal Analyst Paul Teich and Social Media & PR Specialist Trent Warren will attend SXSW (“South by Southwest”) Interactive conference tracks. If you’d like to meet with them onsite, please contact publicrelations@liftrcloud.com to schedule a meeting.

Open Compute Project (OCP) Global Summit: San Jose, March 14-15, 2019
Liftr Cloud Insights Principal Analyst Paul Teich will meet with most of the CSP data center infrastructure supply chain at OCP Global Summit. Contact analyst@liftrcloud.com to schedule a meeting with Paul during the event.

– Paul R. Teich, Principal Analyst, and your Liftr Cloud Insights team

Liftr Cloud Insights is pleased to announce the launch of our premium Liftr Cloud Index service. Liftr Cloud Insights provides the cloud ecosystem with quantified, unbiased insight into individual CSP behavior and market perception, as well as long-term competitive and market trends. To celebrate our launch, we have made our fourth quarter 2018 report available as a free download. Click here to download Liftr Cloud Index 4Q 2018 Analysis.