Altman Solon is the largest global TMT consulting firm with expertise in technology consulting. Our proprietary Cloud Partner Database analyzes certification and competency trends, and the business performance of over 65,000 credentialed cloud partners globally. This database helps cloud partners and buyers define expansion strategies, as well as inform investment decisions in a highly competitive cloud services market.
Over the last five years, Altman Solon’s proprietary database has analyzed more than 65,000 cloud service partners (CSPs) across the globe who support customers in designing, migrating, and managing their cloud workloads. This year’s findings revealed two new trends: growth in AI competencies, with strong developments in generative AI, led by GCP; and growth in industry competencies, led by AWS.
The CSPs we analyze work with the three biggest hyperscaler firms — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft (MSFT) – amongst whom global competition is as fierce as ever. Both Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft, with its infrastructure as a service (IaaS) product Azure, are gaining market share on first mover Amazon Web Services.
The growth in AI competencies is the result of massive investments hyperscalers have made into AI and machine learning. In parallel, service providers are evolving as the cloud is maturing to tailor services, processes, and data requirements to specific verticals — such as public institutions, finance, advertising, and healthcare — as each sector has needs that can be quite different.
In 2024, hyperscalers' investments in artificial intelligence reflected the growing demand for AI tooling (particularly generative AI) from enterprises. Altman Solon's 2024 survey of over 400 senior-level executives showed significant adoption of generative AI products, with 67% of respondents using or implementing generative AI, a 54-percentage point increase from our 2023 survey.
While GCP was an early adopter of AI competencies, AWS and Microsoft have each added various generative AI-related services as well. In terms of the overall number of partners with AI competencies among CSPs, GCP leads the way with 166, followed by AWS with 135, and Microsoft with 94.
GCP offers the most AI-related competencies and focuses strongly on contact center AI services. The company also leverages a proprietary AI development platform it created called Vertex — which can customize models — as well as its Gemini system.
AWS, meanwhile, offers competencies revolving around services and software in conversational AI, generative AI, and machine learning.
Microsoft has doubled down on its generative AI competencies since launching Copilot at the end of 2023. This year alone, the company began requiring its premier partners — those on the “Azure Expert” level — to have generative AI and data solutions rolled into its Power and Business Apps solutions.
From a global perspective, the U.S. is out ahead in terms of service providers offering generative AI competency adoption. Our database shows that 160 CSPs based in the U.S. offer these competencies, compared to 75 in the European Union, 18 in the U.K., and 107 in APAC and Africa.
Enterprise cloud has matured in recent years, with specific sectors having distinct needs for the cloud. 2024 saw a rise in cloud competencies related to industries, going beyond one-size-fits-all workload migrations.
In response, hyperscalers are encouraging CSPs to specialize in specific industry competencies to better serve their clients. Our data shows first mover AWS leading the charge in this area, as the company has been transitioning its enterprise solutions into industry-specific competencies.
AWS currently offers 37 different industry qualifications. In turn, the company has seen the biggest growth among CSPs that are certified in industry competencies — reaching 31% this year, compared to 28% the year before.
MSFT showed a 3% year-on-year growth in the number of CSPs obtaining certifications in industry competencies. The company’s partners are focused on verticalized solutions so they can align with enterprise needs, with particular focus on supply chain needs and SME management.
In general, AWS and GCP have shown they are more focused on infrastructure and industries, while Microsoft also focuses on apps and development, and productivity.
Findings from this year's database show hyperscalers expanding artificial intelligence and machine learning competencies. As enterprise AI grows, we expect to see CSPs getting strategic competencies in this category to remain competitive.
The competition among hyperscalers continues unabated as spending on global cloud services increases every year. A key part of this growth is each company’s partner channel.
While AI and machine learning grab most headlines, it is also essential for CSPs to gain industry-specific certifications. As more organizations move to the cloud, providing tailored services to different industries will be key to staying ahead.
For five years running, Altman Solon's proprietary Cloud Partner Database has synthesized data from over 65,000 credentialed partners who work with AWS, Microsoft, and GCP. We use a seven-pillar taxonomy to segment and compare cloud partner strategies and have longitudinal data for five years running. In addition to our service partners, the database also analyzes “premier” category CSPs across all three hyperscalers. Of these premier partners, we have identified more than 270 as attractive investment targets. This data offers learnings into competency growth strategies and informs potential acquisitions and investments in the cloud partner ecosystem.