Cloud News
CRN’s 2021 Products Of The Year
Wade Tyler Millward, Kyle Alspach
CRN staff compiled the top partner-friendly products that launched over the past year, then turned to solution providers to choose the winners.
PUBLIC CLOUD
MICROSOFT AZURE
WINNER: OVERALL
Microsoft’s Azure public cloud platform received the highest overall rating from solution providers who voted in CRN’s Products of the Year awards for 2021, sweeping the three subcategories of Technology, Revenue and Profit, and Customer Need. The high marks follow similar results in CRN’s inaugural Cloud Barometer survey earlier this year, where Azure got the highest partner satisfaction rating to beat out Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. Azure is “superior to AWS and Google” because of Microsoft’s partner-friendly program and business model, said Reed Wiedower, global alliances leader and CTO for the Cognizant Microsoft Business Group, an Azure Expert Managed Services Provider. At Logicalis Group, another Azure Expert MSP, CEO Bob Bailkoski said that the growth opportunity with Azure is larger than it is with AWS. “Microsoft’s articulation of the opportunity that’s available with Azure is much easier for our customers to understand— especially in the C-suite—than it is perhaps with AWS, which is a slightly more technical, developer-style solution,” he said.
Finalist: Amazon Web Services
In CRN’s 2021 Products of the Year survey of solution providers, Amazon Web Services ranked at No. 2 overall among the five public cloud providers included in the survey. AWS ranked at No. 2 in the Technology and Customer Need subcategories, while ranking at No. 3 in Revenue and Profit.
Finalist: Google Cloud
In CRN’s 2021 Products of the Year survey, solution providers gave Google Cloud the No. 3 overall ranking among public cloud providers. Google Cloud ranked at No. 3 in the Technology sub-category, and at No. 4 in the Customer Need and Revenue and Profit sub-categories.
Finalist: IBM Cloud
IBM Cloud received the No. 4 ranking in CRN’s 2021 Products of the Year survey of solution providers. In terms of sub-categories, IBM Cloud’s best showing was in Revenue and Profit, getting the No. 2 ranking in that sub-category. The platform ranked at No. 3 in Customer Need and at No. 4 in Technology.
Finalist: Oracle Cloud Infrastructure
Oracle Cloud Infrastructure was ranked by solution providers at No. 5 overall in Public Cloud in CRN’s 2021 Products of the Year survey. The platform ranked at No. 5 in all three sub-categories in the survey for Public Cloud.
