How to Gain Cloud Market Share in 2024 — TBR Reports
The cloud market has been on a more than 15-year growth trajectory that rewarded leaders for establishing scale above all else.
Early-to-market vendors in infrastructure and SaaS capitalized on the consistent market expansion to establish themselves as not only some of the largest cloud providers but also the largest vendors in their market segments across all delivery methods.
Those firms also experienced some of the most dramatic slowdowns in revenue growth as the market softened in 2023.
Allan Krans, Practice Manager and Principal Analyst for TBR
The cloud market has been on a more than 15-year growth trajectory that rewarded leaders for establishing scale above all else. Early-to-market vendors, such as Amazon Web Services in infrastructure and Salesforce in SaaS, capitalized on the consistent market expansion to establish themselves as not only some of the largest cloud providers but also the largest vendors in their market segments across all delivery methods.
However, those firms also experienced some of the most dramatic slowdowns in revenue growth as the market softened in 2023. Part of that slowdown is undoubtedly the “law of large numbers,” meaning growth slows as size increases, but it also reflects a broader market shift toward growth created by new features, capabilities, and go-to-market programs.
Strategies to Gain Cloud Market Share in 2024
In 2024 we expect vendors that successfully implement the following strategies will become growth leaders in the cloud market:
Effectively Monetize Next-gen Features for AI-led Growth
While the market for GenAI and AI solutions more broadly is still developing, the investments from end customers appear to be very real and meaningful. Despite the intent to invest and spend, there are many hurdles for vendors to clear before they can start recognizing the revenue opportunity.
These hurdles include identifying and articulating use cases, measuring benefits and returns, implementing pricing models that work for both vendors and customers, and developing an ecosystem to support all these tactics. Vendors that make progress tackling these challenges stand the best chance of realizing AI-led growth in 2024.
Expand Addressable Markets
The benefits of an ecosystem have been clear for decades, but for many IT and cloud vendors, the changes to their business models have been too significant to overcome. However, in an environment where cloud vendors are experiencing slower growth and still trying to control expense levels, the ecosystem model is even more impactful.
Proficiency in orchestrating service partners, ISVs, resellers, and joint solution alliances around core offerings will be another growth driver for vendors in 2024.
Orchestrate Multivendor Partnerships
Managing a customer base that spans traditional legacy solutions and cloud-delivered ones has been a challenging task. To date, it has been simpler and easier for born-on-the-cloud providers to use a disruptive model to sell a simplified set of offerings to establish their position in the market
However, there is now an advantage for multimode providers in controlling the transition to new solutions and delivery methods in a slower-growth environment. In the clearest example of this advantage, SAP has been able to sustain growth in 2023 even as its more cloud-dependent peers have experienced the impacts of the market slowdown.
The maturation of AI opportunities will also play a role in this advantage, as customers may end up with data models stored in a variety of places within their IT landscape, based on performance and security requirements.
Conclusion
In 2024 the cloud landscape will become segmented between vendors that can sustain high rates of growth and expansion and those that cannot. Simply providing cloud services at scale is no longer enough for vendors to gain cloud market share. More complex strategies will define the cloud leaderboard in 2024. Additionally, delivering AI-enabled next-generation capabilities and nurturing ecosystems will garner investment despite the slower market growth and macroeconomic uncertainty.
To learn more about TBR’s predictions or for more information, please visit www.tbri.com.