Internet & WAN Services - Cloud Computing Platform

This is a new category we've introduced to the Users' Choice awards this year, owing to all the hype surrounding it. In fact, our results indicate that the hype is currently more than the reality out there. So while the top of mind recall is very high in this segment, current ownerships and future purchase are nothing to write home about!

In the 100-499 employees segment, the users' choice is VMware's vCloud, with IBM's Smart Cloud at a distant number two position. Salesforce.com is just on the heels of IBM though. vCloud had the highest top of mind recall, current ownership, and future purchase among respondents. In the 500+ segment, Microsoft's Azure is the Users' Choice, and VMware's vCloud is at a distant second spot, followed by Amazon's EC2.

Brand loyalties are at the 100% level in the segment for most players who made it to the club. This is probably because it's a relatively new platform and users are still are getting used to it. In the 100-499 segment for instance, 100% of users currently using IBM, Citrix, and Amazon's cloud based offerings said they're likely to stay with those in the future as well. The winner VMware had 60% brand loyalty, but the remaining 40% weren't sure which other brand to shift to. In the 500+ segment, all brands that made it to the club enjoy 100%

brand loyalty.

Unlike other categories, the topmost reason for choosing different brands in this space is not product reliability only. In the 100-499 employees segment for instance, 100% of users likely to use IBM, Amazon, or Citrix's cloud platforms gave brand value as well as product reliability as their primary reason. In case of salesforce.com, 100% of users likely to go for it gave brand value and after sales service and support as their reasons. 100% of users likely to go for VMware's vCloud gave product reliability as the reason. A similar pattern is visible in 500+ segment, as can be seen from the table.