Amazon Web Services maintained its status in 2012 as the leading cloud infrastructure provider, cutting prices and adding features to its service.

But competition intensified throughout the year. Rackspace added public and private cloud services to its portfolio. The big tech vendors made serious plays to bring their existing customers and new ones into the cloud fold.

Telcos took the natural steps of leveraging their existing infrastructure to offer attractive cloud services, younger companies built new cloud infrastructure, and OpenStack became its own foundation and turned into a center point for scores of companies accessing the cloud.

Here we take a look at the coolest cloud infrastructure vendors to make this year's Cloud 100 list.