IDC MarketScape
IDC MarketScape: Canadian Public IaaS 2015 Vendor
Assessment
Mark Schrutt
IN THIS EXCERPT
The content for this excerpt was taken directly from the IDC MarketScape: Canadian Public Infrastructure as a Service 2015 Vendor Assessment by Mark Schrutt (Doc #CA1SSC15). All or parts of the following sections are included in this excerpt: IDC Opinion, IDC MarketScape Vendor Inclusion Criteria, Essential Buyer Guidance, Vendor Summary Profile, Appendix, Learn More, and Related Research. Also included is the IDC MarketScape Figure (Figure 1).
IDC MARKETSCAPE FIGURE
FIGURE 1
IDC MarketScape: Canadian Public IaaS Vendor Assessment
Source: IDC, 2015
Please see the Appendix for detailed methodology, market definition, and scoring criteria.
Amazon Web Services IBM Microsoft Long View RackForce Internap Cogeco Data Services CenturyLink Bell Canada TELUS SherWeb CentriLogic C ap ab il it ie s Strategies
IDC MarketScape Canadian Public IaaS Market
Leaders
Major Players
Contenders
IDC OPINION
In June 2013, a Toronto-based start-up fresh from a round of financing opened its doors. Within the next quarter, the firm had introduced a new platform for creating and managing real-time digital content advertising, brought in a dozen additional sales and support staff, and began landing accounts such as CNN, The Associated Press, Rogers, and ESPN. By the end of 2013, the start-up had completed its second round of funding, and by the end of 2014, it had passed 60 people and outgrown its office. The company had accomplished this without any onsite servers and with a skeleton information technology (IT) staff and virtually no capital expenditures. The firm — Scribble Technologies, a Deloitte Technology Fast 50 company with 5,857% growth — had done it all through the use of cloud technologies. IDC has seen dozens of other "born in the cloud" businesses emerge since early 2013, when IDC published our first IDC MarketScape on cloud computing. Many examples similar to the rise of firms like Scribble Technologies have happened since that time. Changes we have seen in the Canadian public
infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) market include the hardening of buyer preferences toward factors of security and quality of service and away from the need for vendors to provide end-to-end IT services beyond solely public IaaS; the emergence of hybrid computing as users branch out of Web hosting and test/dev as well as users steering the market to open platforms and interoperability of public, private, hosted, and in-house technologies; and many IT departments undergoing a shift from focusing on delivery to managing delivery and the shift in vendors that are now more likely to be chosen by both line-of-business and IT decision makers. This study is IDC's second IDC MarketScape on the
Canadian public IaaS market. Offerings are becoming less expensive while much more robust and automated to enable self-serve features. Providers are picking up on the hybrid message and designing their solutions with interoperability and hybrid management in mind. Partners also have more skin in the game to bridge gaps in offerings and as a channel to the market. Additional highlights of IDC's study include:
In 2013, there was one firm placed in the Leaders category. In 2015, three providers (Amazon Web Services [AWS], IBM, and Microsoft) made it to the Leaders category.
The Major Player category is heavily populated. IDC believes that scale, channel strategy, and ability to deliver hybrid computing will differentiate vendors in this heavily competitive space.
IDC MARKETSCAPE VENDOR INCLUSION CRITERIA
This research includes analysis of the leading public infrastructure–based cloud service providers in Canada. The inclusion criteria was set at a minimum of C$1 million in public IaaS revenue and C$20 million in overall hosting.
This assessment is designed to evaluate the characteristics of each firm — as opposed to a firm's size or breadth of services. It is conceivable, and in fact the case, that specialty firms can compete with multidisciplinary firms on an equal footing. As such, this evaluation should not be considered a "final judgment" on the firms to consider for a particular project. An enterprise's specific objectives and requirements play a significant role in determining which firms should be considered as potential candidates for an engagement.
ESSENTIAL BUYER GUIDANCE
Align your efforts. The shift to a more business-focused IT department is already underway. More progressive CIOs have built closer ties and integrated IT (resources, activities, and sourcing decisions) with the business. By focusing on what solutions are needed rather than how they are delivered, CIOs are crafting IT departments that will look far different from traditional IT and are much more flexible, responsive, and effective.
Get your plan in flight. Buyers need to ramp up their knowledge and then quickly take cloud off the drawing board and into production. Buyers need to develop transition plans for legacy technologies and have a cloud-first approach to new projects and infrastructure spend. This planning starts with the needs of the business, how IT can support the business' goals, and what options are available for IT to do its job better and more cost effectively. Cloud changes how IT gets done, sometimes supplementing, and in other situations replacing, how services are delivered. Companies need to reassess their IT strategy and determine if and when traditional technologies and tasks such as test/dev and backup and recovery can be moved to the cloud. This new IT strategy cannot sit on the shelf. Planning needs to be a continuous process that realigns the business and IT and addresses the rebalancing between internally and externally provided service and hosting, public, private, and hybrid IaaS.
Make hybrid your goal. Buyers cannot leave cloud in isolation. Part of the planning process needs to be the framework that will integrate single-vendor clouds with corporate systems. This involves the rewriting of processes to adjust to on-demand and as-a-service model supporting business users in various ways, different chargeback mechanisms, and new tools to manage it all. The IT department will also have to shift from delivering services to managing delivery and vendor relationships. IT will have to demonstrate its ability to manage change, work closer with the business, and show value for money.
VENDOR SUMMARY PROFILE
This section briefly explains IDC's key observations resulting in a vendor's position in the IDC MarketScape. While every vendor is evaluated against each of the criteria outlined in the Appendix, the description here provides a summary of each vendor's strengths and challenges.
Cogeco Data Services
Cogeco Data Services (CDS), part of the Quebec-based Cogeco Inc. family of companies, is placed as a Major Player in this IDC MarketScape. Cogeco Data caters to the midsize marketplace with a value proposition founded on its network capabilities, the quality of its datacentre assets and, most
importantly, its ability to provide a full spectrum of infrastructure management to support hybrid cloud environments.
Cogeco Data has been providing IaaS services since 2012. Since IDC's previous Canadian IaaS IDC MarketScape, Cogeco Data has introduced a number of new features and services, including:
An easy-to-use and comprehensive end-user portal with management tools for clients to onboard, scale, and decommission resources and manage their cloud environments and other CDS services
Public IaaS infrastructure built on FlexPod reference architecture and supports both VMware and Hyper-V virtualization technologies.
Service level–backed storage tiers to ensure high performance for enterprise workloads on multitenant infrastructure
New security features including DDoS protection and next-generation multitenant firewalls
Geo-redundant public cloud
The Cogeco Data public IaaS is a virtual private cloud platform. Cogeco Data also offers hosted and on-premise private IaaS services as well as a variety of hosted (colocation and dedicated hosting) and on-premise infrastructure management services. Cogeco Data promotes its ability to integrate these services into a hybrid platform managed by a single-pane-of-glass portal. Clients can configure Cogeco Data's public IaaS in numerous ways by provisioning virtual machine (VM), storage, network, and backup requirements. Service levels are integrated, providing one SLA that covers the Cogeco Data network, infrastructure, and portal. Cogeco Data's public IaaS comes in both self-serve and managed models. There are three levels of managed cloud: monitoring; advanced management, which includes patching, configuration changes, and maintenance as well as access, incident, and problem management; and custom, to deliver value-added services to meet unique client
requirements.
There are various billing models offered by Cogeco Data. These include pay as you go, with or without reserve; guaranteed capacity; and longer-term pricing agreements with reserve capacity options. Cogeco Data's public IaaS is built on FlexPod reference architecture and supports both VMware and Hyper-V virtualization technologies.
Cogeco Data offerings are available through its direct sales force. In addition, Cogeco Data has significant business in the technology vertical, supporting ISVs as well as SIs and value-added resellers. It is expected that Cogeco Data will put a larger emphasis on the channel and potentially look to white label its offerings in the Canadian marketplace. In addition, Cogeco Data is expected to expand its geographic delivery model. Currently, Cogeco Data's public IaaS is delivered out of the company's downtown Toronto and Barrie, Ontario, centres. Cogeco Data has a new 50,000 sq ft datacentre opening in Montreal later this year, and it is anticipated that Cogeco Data's public IaaS offerings will be offered out of this location. Last, IDC also expects Cogeco will expand its integration efforts between Cogeco Data and PEER 1. Both are part of Cogeco's Enterprise business unit but to date have operated autonomously. The firms have different client sets, sales models, and offerings; yet a singular focus, or branding, would enhance Cogeco Data's position in the market and its ability to capture a larger market share.
Strengths
Cogeco Data is focused on hybrid cloud solutions, a message that resonates and is leading to some success. Cogeco Data is very focused on the customer and flexible in designing solutions and pricing. Cogeco Data is well supported by its parent, Cogeco, which also owns PEER 1 Networks.
Challenges
While Cogeco Data has a relatively wide footprint of datacentre floor space, its sales efforts are too concentrated in the Greater Toronto Area. Cogeco Data needs to extend its sales coverage, particularly in its home province of Quebec. Cogeco Data has brand issues. While respected as a telecommunications and hosting provider, to be perceived as a major public IaaS player, Cogeco Data has to increase brand awareness and service perception.
APPENDIX
Reading an IDC MarketScape Graph
For the purposes of this analysis, IDC divided potential key measures for success into two primary categories: capabilities and strategies.
Positioning on the y-axis reflects the vendor's current capabilities and menu of services and how well aligned the vendor is to customer needs. The capabilities category focuses on the capabilities of the company and product today, here and now. Under this category, IDC analysts will look at how well a vendor is building/delivering capabilities that enable it to execute its chosen strategy in the market. Positioning on the x-axis, or strategies axis, indicates how well the vendor's future strategy aligns with what customers will require in three to five years. The strategies category focuses on high-level decisions and underlying assumptions about offerings, customer segments, and business and go-to-market plans for the next three to five years.
The size of the individual vendor markers in the IDC MarketScape represents the market share of each individual vendor within the specific market segment being assessed.
IDC MarketScape Methodology
IDC MarketScape criteria selection, weightings, and vendor scores represent well-researched IDC judgment about the market and specific vendors. IDC analysts tailor the range of standard
characteristics by which vendors are measured through structured discussions, surveys, and interviews with market leaders, participants, and end users. Market weightings are based on user interviews, buyer surveys, and the input of a review board of IDC experts in each market. IDC analysts base individual vendor scores, and ultimately vendor positions on the IDC MarketScape, on detailed surveys and interviews with the vendors, publicly available information, and end-user experiences in an effort to provide an accurate and consistent assessment of each vendor's characteristics, behavior, and capability.
Market Definition
Scope of this Study
Cloud services are fundamentally about an alternative solution composition, delivery, and consumption model — one that can be applied to IT industry offerings but also, much more broadly, to offerings from many other industries, including entertainment, energy, financial services, health, manufacturing, retail, and transportation as well as the government and education sectors.
The cloud model goes well beyond prior online delivery approaches — combining efficient use of multitenant (shared) resources, radically simplified "solution" packaging, self-service provisioning, highly elastic and granular scaling, flexible pricing, and broad leverage of Internet-standard technologies — to make offerings dramatically easier and generally less expensive to consume. Most cloud environments are built using virtualization, automated provisioning, service-level management, end-to-end performance monitoring, consumption-based capacity optimization, chargeback analysis, and a number of other state-of-the-art management software products used to enable the dynamic resource scaling and automated provisioning capabilities that are the hallmark of cloud environments.
Cloud Service Attributes
Cloud computing environments are defined by IDC as having a number of important attributes that distinguish them from other computing architectures, including virtualization and clustering. Specifically, IDC defines cloud services through a checklist of key attributes that an offering must manifest to end users of the service (see Table 1). Cloud services, as defined by IDC, require the support of all of these attributes. This definition was taken into account in reviewing and scoring the providers in this study.
These attributes apply to all cloud services — in all public and private cloud service deployment models — although the specifics of how each attribute applies may vary slightly among these deployment models. For more details, see IDC's Worldwide IT Cloud Services Taxonomy, 2012 (IDC #233396, March 2012).
TABLE 1
Key Cloud Service Attributes
Cloud Services Attribute Details
Shared, standard service Built for multitenancy, among or within enterprises
Solution packaged A "turnkey" offering, pre-integrates required resources
Elastic resource scaling Provisioning and management, typically via a Web portal
Elastic, use-based pricing Dynamic, rapid, and fine-grained
Ubiquitous (authorized) network access Supported by service metering
Standard UI technologies Browsers, RIA clients, and underlying technologies
Published service interface/API Web services, other common Internet APIs
Source: IDC, 2015
Infrastructure-Based Deployment Models
At the highest level, there are two types of deployment models for cloud services: public and private. Figure 2 provides a framework of the breadth of cloud deployment models. For more detailed
descriptions of these services, see IDC's Worldwide Services Taxonomy, 2013 (IDC #239900, March 2013):
Public cloud services. Public cloud services are shared among unrelated customers and are open to a largely unrestricted universe of potential users. Public cloud services are designed for a market — not a single enterprise. Public IaaS is in the scope of this study.
Private cloud services. Private cloud services are shared within a single enterprise or an extended enterprise. Private cloud services have restrictions on access to and level of resource dedication, are defined/controlled by the enterprise, and can be managed either by in-house staff or by a third-party provider.
The latter model is referred to as hosted private cloud. Hosted private cloud services have significant user control and security structures in place, typically for additional cost, and/or that offer an array of tenancy and resource dedication choices that set hosted private cloud services apart from public cloud while still having the cloud characteristics (refer back to Table 1). Hosted private cloud is a composite view of two cloud deployment models: virtual private cloud (VPC — in the scope of this study), which is an adjunct of public cloud services with shared virtualized resources and a range of customer control and security options distinct from most public cloud infrastructure as a service, and dedicated private cloud (not in the scope of this study), which is about dedicated physical resources focused on one enterprise/extended enterprise.
FIGURE 2
Cloud Services Deployment Models
Source: IDC, 2015
Strategies and Capabilities Criteria
Along with the selection criteria and the scoring our survey respondents gave to the vendors participating in this study, IDC also factored in vendors' offerings, strategies, and approach to the market in our IDC MarketScape rankings. Tables 2 and 3 provide an explanation and weightings for these elements.
TABLE 2
Key Strategy Measures for Success: Public IaaS
Strategies Criteria Factors
Subcriteria Weighting Offering strategy
Functionality or offering road map
Overall approach/portfolio of cloud services, how will private IaaS and managed hosting evolve
2.00
Delivery model On-premise/hosted and pricing models 1.25
Cost management strategy Leverage datacentre investments for IaaS; operational strategy to support
IaaS, approach to being a low-cost/value-added provider
1.50
Portfolio strategy Value-added services; one-stop shop for SaaS, PaaS, database services 1.75
Future integration strategy Integration with existing internal and outsourced information systems; ability
to onboard and repatriate
2.00
Scalability strategy Approach to supporting more compute/storage, datacentre build out
approach, DR, failover, no outage plan, balancing loads
1.50
Subtotal 10.00
Go-to-market strategy
Pricing model Billing and customer care, how does the vendor get feedback on pricing, ease
of contracting
3.00
Sales/distribution strategy Online fulfillment/provisioning, inbound/outbound sales, VAR, reseller
program for resale, consulting
4.00
Marketing strategy Marketing budget for IaaS versus other services; marketing department and
priority for IaaS
1.00
Customer service strategy CSAT approach, plan to identify and address issues; development of other
private and cloud services to drive stickiness, account management approach
2.00
Subtotal 10.00
Business strategy
Growth strategy Growth targets, how realistic are they, what hurdles do vendors see in
reaching and what are vendors doing about them
2.00
Innovation/R&D pace and productivity
Use of cloud internally for productivity; linkage of R&D/innovation to customer needs and revenue
1.25
Financial/funding model How will the vendor fund datacentre and IT investments, potential risk in this
model and mitigation strategy; cost of capital versus competition, operational cost strategy
3.00
Other business strategies How green will the vendor's datacentre/operations be 3.75
Subtotal 10.00
TABLE 3
Key Capability Measures for Success: Public IaaS
Capabilities Criteria Factors
Subcriteria Weighting Offering capabilities
Functionality/offering delivered
Easy to understand and use; security features, measures and remediation; configuration options (various compute, storage, database options, bring your own license ability, operating systems [Lin, NT])
2.00
Delivery model appropriateness and execution
What options are available: on demand and elastic/self-serve, going through sales/account managers, hybrid approach; scope of infrastructure options, from private hosted to facility-managed private offering, VPC, public IaaS and hosting options, and utility pricing model
3.00
Cost competitiveness Price competitive (compared with other vendors, all in [TCO]), price
reductions/volume discounts); how the vendor assesses and decides on what to charge (gauging the market) and approach to continuous price changes depending on market conditions), approach to pricing the underlying professional services associated with cloud (integration, design, support)
1.75
Portfolio benefits delivered Suite of as-a-service cloud offerings (IaaS, public/private/dedicated, hybrid,
PaaS, SaaS storefront, cloud broker or integration services); suite of additional infrastructure services (hosting, colocation), professional services (consulting, architect, and design)
2.25
Integration capabilities How difficult (for the client) and how costly, what approach or methodologies
are utilized, tools and professional services available to help with integration
0.50
Scalability Scalability of the infrastructure, facilities; clients' ability to transition current
hardware assets to a virtualized environment/private IaaS
0.50
Subtotal 10.00
Go-to-market capabilities Pricing model options and alignment
Utility (pay as you go, what established minimums are there, is it all inclusive [single billing, includes the network component]); easy to understand, easy to compare
2.50
Sales/distribution structure, capabilities
Choice between self-serve and using channel, sales force; presales technical sales force
4.00
Marketing Priority IaaS has with other marketing efforts, percentage of marketing spent
on cloud/utility; strategy to customize marketing (business size, vertical — for Canada)
1.50
Customer service How is support organized (in hosting, datacentre delivery, etc.); customer
portal and back-end integration to other support tools, single point of contact for support
2.00
TABLE 3
Key Capability Measures for Success: Public IaaS
Capabilities Criteria Factors
Subcriteria Weighting Business capabilities
Growth strategy execution Growth targets, how realistic are they, what hurdles do vendors see in
reaching and what are vendors doing about them; datacentre expansion plans and funding; sales force and channel investments (cloud as compared with other services, how is sales integration going to occur (cloud with traditional services), comparison with peers)
3.00
Innovation/R&D pace and productivity
Number of Canadian/U.S. datacentres and capacity/specs, certifications, sustainability feasters, dedicated of centre (sq ft) to IaaS
2.00
Financial/funding management
Funding partners/credit line availability 4.00
Other business capabilities IDC perception data on how vendors rate on elements buyers see as critical
to IaaS 1.00 Subtotal 10.00 Source: IDC, 2015
LEARN MORE
Related Research
Canadian Public Cloud IT Services 2014–2018 Forecast (IDC #CA3CCS14, December 2014)
Canadian End-User Views on Cloud Computing Services (IDC #CA11CAS14, September 2014)
IT Buyer Guide: Canadian Managed Services, 2014 (IDC #CA7SSC14, September 2014)
Case Study: Canadian Cloud at Work (IDC #CA1CCS14, September 2014)
Canadian Infrastructure Outsourcing 2014–2018 Forecast (IDC #CA4SSC14, April 2014)
Canada Following Fast on the Cloud (IDC #CA4CCS14, March 2014)
IDC MarketScape: Canadian Dedicated Private Infrastructure as a Service 2014 Vendor Assessment (IDC #CA1SSC14, March 2014)
A Canadian View of Infrastructure as a Service: Buyer Case Studies on the Toronto Star and Lake Shore Gold (IDC #CA1CCS13, November 2013)
The State of Software as a Service in Canada, 2013 (IDC #CA7ECA13, October 2013)
Canadian Public IT Cloud Services: 2013–2017 Forecast Update (IDC #CA2CCS13, August 2013)
IDC MarketScape: Canadian Public IaaS 2013 Vendor Analysis (IDC #CA3SSC13, June 2013)
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