Top 10 Fastest-Growing Cloud Vendors: #1 Google, #2 Oracle, #3 Microsoft

As the enterprise cloud becomes the unquestioned foundation for the future of digital business, the 3 vendors whose cloud revenue is growing most rapidly in this booming market are Google at 44.8%, Oracle 33% (estimated), and Microsoft 31%.

(On my weekly Cloud Wars Top 10 rankings of the largest and most-influential cloud vendors in the world, Google is #4, Oracle is #6, and Microsoft is #1.)

Those three stood out within the Cloud Wars Top 10, which as a group continued to show hefty growth rates even as revenue bases grow significantly larger. 

Two exceptions: SAP and Adobe

The only exceptions were #5 SAP, which is making a long-term strategic adjustment to accelerate the moves by its customers from on-premises systems to the cloud, and #10 Adobe, whose Digital Experience business continues to try to find its footing in a wickedly competitive market.

Let’s take a look at the numbers to see why Google Cloud, Oracle, and Microsoft lead the current cloud-revenue growth parade (and here I am listing the companies by current growth rates as opposed to their standings in the ongoing Cloud Wars Top 10 rankings).

World’s Top Cloud Vendors Ranked by Revenue Growth

2. Google Cloud: 44.8%. Thomas Kurian’s company not only posted a best-in-class growth rate of 44.8% for Q3, but it also managed to raise that rate from the preceding quarter’s 43%. Parent company Alphabet said revenue was strong across data and analytics, its new industry-specific solutions, and traditional infrastructure and platform services.
               —Google Cloud Stellar Performance Triggers Special Status from Alphabet

2. Oracle: 33% (estimated). This is a bit of a shocker—and a bit of a highly educated guess—because Oracle does not break out its cloud revenue from its license and support business. Here’s how I came up with my estimated cloud-revenue growth rate of 33% for its fiscal quarter ended Aug. 31. For that fiscal Q1, CEO Safra Catz said that:

• revenue for Fusion SaaS apps was up 26%;
• revenue for NetSuite SaaS apps was up 23%;
• revenue for cloud-native Autonomous Database was up 64%; and
• revenue for OCI infrastructure was up 130%. 

Since the latter two are fairly new businesses that don’t yet generate large amounts of revenue, I’ve estimated the total growth rate across those 4 cloud revenue categories at 33%. A further guess was that it could be as low as 29% or as high as 38%.
               —Can Oracle Snatch Trillion-Dollar Hybrid Market from Microsoft and IBM?

3. Microsoft: 31%. The world’s largest provider of enterprise-cloud services by a wide margin over Amazon’s AWS–$15.2 billion versus $11.6 billion—Microsoft reported Q3 Commercial Cloud revenue was up 31% in constant currency led by Azure and Dynamics 365. For Microsoft’s fiscal calendar, the 3-month period ending Sept. 30 is its first fiscal quarter.
               —#1 Microsoft Still Rules the Cloud: 5 Numbers Show Why

4. TIE: Amazon, Salesforce, and ServiceNow: 29%.

–Amazon AWS: It maintained the 29% cloud-revenue growth rate from Q2 while reaching an annualized revenue run rate of a whopping $46 billion.
               —As Amazon’s Cloud Growth Slows, Will Jeff Bezos Cut AWS Loose?

–Salesforce: for its fiscal Q2 ending July 31, Salesforce cracked $5 billion in quarterly revenue at $5.15 billion.
               —The Magic of Marc Benioff: 10 Key Drivers Behind Salesforce Q2 Surge

–ServiceNow: subscription revenue topped $1 billion for the first time as the digital-workflow pioneers not only boosted Q3 revenue 29% but also raised guidance for the year.
               —As Oracle, Salesforce and SAP Fight for Future, Can ServiceNow Tip the Scales?

7. Workday: 23%. For its fiscal Q2 ended July 31, Workday almost reached $1 billion in subscription revenue as growth was consistently strong across its entire set of products.
               —Workday Says Limitations of Legacy Systems (SAP & Oracle) Boosted Q2 Growth

8. IBM: 19%. As you see that number, recall that IBM has a huge cloud business with trailing 12-month cloud revenue of $24.4 billion.
               —Why Does IBM Have 4 Huge Zero-Growth Businesses in Today’s Booming Market?

9. SAP: 14%. While some of its cloud applications showed strong growth, its Concur expense-management solution has plummeted this year in the near-absence of business travel. CEO Christian Klein vows a return to higher levels of cloud growth in the near future.
               —SAP: After Brutal Q3, Will it Stumble Again or Bounce Back Boldly?

10. Adobe: 7%. Good news and bad news? Bad news is 7% subscription-revenue growth in a booming marketplace. Good news is CEO Shantanu Narayen believes the overall Digital Experience enterprise business is on track but its results are being pulled down by its poorly performing Advertising Cloud.
               —Can High-Flying Adobe Go Toe-to-Toe with Salesforce in Enterprise?

Disclosure: at the time of this writing, the following companies mentioned in this article were among the many clients of Cloud Wars Media LLC and/or Evans Strategic Communications LLC: Microsoft, Google Cloud, SAP, Oracle, Workday, and ServiceNow.

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