Top public cloud vendors raked in $6 billion by Q4 2013

The latest revenue barometer for public cloud vendors suggests that the top 50 providers grew year-over-year returns by 47 percent to $6.2 billion, while the market growth for cloud services climbed to $15.1 billion for the same 2012-2013 period.

Tallied by Technology Business Research, the impressive (albeit unsurprising) numbers combine SaaS, PaaS and IaaS services. Cost savings, interoperability, ease of use, and the overall acceptance of public cloud across the vendor and customer landscape drove growth, according to the research firm. 

Jillian Mirandi, senior analyst for TBR's Cloud Practice, said that even with the acquisition landscape relatively quite, vendors are still morphing their market strategies:

Leading public cloud vendors are evolving go-to-market strategies to embrace ecosystem-led approaches that are needed to increase reach and serve the broadest markets. A large and diverse ISV partner base will help tailor products vertically and horizontally, increasing vendors' stickiness, while C&SI alliances help create new use cases and improve overall value propositions.

The benchmark cited SaaS leaders such as Salesforce.com and Box as vendors that increasingly rely on the channel to tailor core solutions to verticals. Similarly on the IaaS side, segment leaders Amazon Web Services and Google are also expanding C&SI alliances to improve their high-touch consulting, integration, migration and customization services.

TBR forecasts public cloud consolidation to continue through acquisitions in 2014, with IBM, HP and Cisco all expected to make notable company purchases.