Managed Application & Network Services Industry Profile

Companies in this industry provide application hosting and data storage services, data processing, time-sharing computing services, and related infrastructure and network services. Major companies include Amazon Web Services, Google (through Google Cloud Platform), Microsoft's Azure unit, Oracle, and IBM (all US-based), along with China's Alibaba.

The worldwide public cloud services market -- a key driver of industry growth -- is projected to total about $186 billion in 2018, up 21.4% from the year before, according to Gartner. The US and Europe are established markets for cloud services, while China is expected to contribute high levels of growth over the next five years amid major digital transformation efforts.

The US managed application and network services industry includes about 18,000 establishments (single-location companies and units of multi-location companies) with combined annual revenue of about $176 billion.

COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

Companies with the access to capital for new equipment and the ability to maintain large networks of data centers enjoy significant advantages. A highly skilled workforce is required to ensure data center uptime and access to data. Some companies may focus on a single category of services, such as managed website hosting, while others may offer a broad range of services to compete effectively in the market.

Amazon Web Services held 33% of the cloud infrastructure market in Q1 2018, unchanged from a year earlier, according to Synergy Research Group. During the same period Microsoft's market share rose ...