Amazon, Microsoft, and Google might dominate the mega scale end of the hyperscale cloud provider market, but new research from ClearPath Strategies reveals the Big 3’s values don’t always align with the developers who use them.
The cloud provider market study found that although developers generally trust their cloud provider of choice, a deeper examination of their values uncovers a crack when it comes to trusting the major cloud providers.
“Approximately 20% of developers believe that the Big 3 hyperscalers will engage in behaviors that include leveraging their brands to stifle competition, focusing on shareholders more than customer needs, hosting or working with customers that developers find morally objectionable, monetizing user data for their own use and, locking them in with proprietary tools. Criteria such as security and performance clearly take priority over these trust issues for developers, but it’s interesting to note that a sizable portion of developers are thinking about how their values align with those of their service providers.” — Stephanie Fairchild, senior analyst at ClearPath Strategies
ClearPath’s global study gathered insights from more than 800 developers at small and mid-sized businesses across a variety of industries to assess how they choose their cloud providers. Though 73% of respondents said they prioritize needs over values when making a decision, the outcome is problematic—nearly 20% do not trust their hyperscale provider on criteria that should be unassailable: such as leveraging their brands to stifle cloud provider competition, focusing on shareholders more than customers, and monetizing user data.
Interestingly, the study also showed that developers equate performance and security of smaller, alternative hyperscale players like Linode to those of larger providers. However, smaller players also offer an added benefit: aligning with SMB developers’ values.
Developers no longer have to compromise their values (or their business) when they choose a cloud partner.
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