To evaluate public cloud platforms you have to look at the breadth of cloud services developers use, which means including Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Windows Azure, and Salesforce.com's Heroku in the same comparison.
That's right - there's a mix of IaaS and PaaS products in our evaluation. Why? Our job is to help AD&D leaders select the right platform for their public cloud deployments. Developers seek utility where they can find it. Thus, the most widely used public cloud platform in our surveys is not a PaaS, but rather AWS, which is commonly labeled an IaaS.
Public cloud platforms unlock the flexibility, productivity, and economic advantages of cloud computing. Our "Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Public Cloud Platforms, Q2 2013" evaluates the 14 leading providers of platforms for the enterprise. We included AWS, CloudBees, Cordys, Engine Yard, GoGrid, Google, IBM, Mendix, Microsoft, MioSoft, Rackspace, salesforce.com, SoftLayer, and Verizon Terremark.
In conducting this research, we learned that cloud platforms don't fit into neat product categories. AWS is much more than an IaaS, Microsoft and Google are now providers of both PaaS and IaaS products. This finding (previewed in this blog) is vital to help AD&D leaders sort through a veritable explosion of new products labeled "PaaS".
The key to selecting the right cloud platforms for your shop is knowing your developers. Not all the developers using public cloud platforms are the same. The cloud developers we met during our research fit into three groups:
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