Managed Public Cloud Services: Value of Public Cloud Providers When Partnering with Managed Service Providers

This IDC Market Perspective provides insight into buyer experience in working with public cloud providers spanning AWS, Azure, Google, IBM, and Alibaba as part of utilizing managed cloud services and the managed SPs supporting these public clouds. This document looks specifically at client assessment of these public cloud providers based on the following three criteria posed as part of IDC's 2024 Worldwide Managed Cloud View Survey to buyers of managed cloud services:Benefits. Primary benefit that companies/organizations achieved when using managed cloud services to support each of the public cloud providers that they utilizeChallenges. Primary challenge that companies/organizations have experienced when using managed cloud services to support each of the public cloud providers that they utilizeStrengths. Primary strength for each of the public cloud providers that companies/organizations have utilized when using managed cloud services to support these providers"Optimizing the value that enterprises can achieve when using public cloud providers as part of managed cloud services will be essential for managed SPs in helping organizations meet those critical business and IT objectives for which firms utilize these services that include increasing revenue by enabling firms to build new revenue-generating products and services faster, improving customer experience by leveraging AI and analytics, linking IT more closely with business performance, demanding more agility and/or speed from IT, moving from capex to opex, and simplifying and standardizing IT infrastructure and applications platforms," says David Tapper, program VP, Outsourcing and Managed Cloud Services at IDC. "Investments that managed SPs must make to ensure that they can effectively support client use of public cloud providers must include emphasizing value proposition, incorporating critical technologies for operational excellence, implementing multicloud management for control, building a matrix management function, creating a centralized organization, targeting specific use cases, and leveraging strengths in supporting multicloud operations."