AWS Still Leads Race, Google Grows Fastest: How Cloud Market Shaped Up In Q1

The worldwide cloud market grew at a robust clip in the first quarter, and the big three vendors dominated, according to a new report released by Canalys.

Cloud Spending Maintains Red-Hot Pace: First-quarter cloud infrastructure spending climbed 34% year-over-year and about 12% from the previous quarter to $55.9 billion, Canalys said.

The top three vendors, namely Amazon, Inc.'s AMZN AWS, Microsoft Corporation's MSFT Azure and Alphabet, Inc.'s GOOGL GOOG Google Cloud, benefited from increased adoptions and scale.

These, according to Canalys, collectively grew 42% year-over-year and accounted for 62% of the global customer spend.

"Cloud has continued to be a hot market and transformation strategies are emphasizing digital resiliency to face the market challenges of today and tomorrow," said Canalys analyst Blake Murray.

Related Link: Amazon Q1 Takeaways: Mixed Earnings, Lower Guidance Sends Stock Falling

Competitive Positioning: AWS remained in the pole position with a 33% share of the market. The year-over-year growth slowed from 40% in the fourth quarter to 37%.

Google Cloud, with its 54% year-over-year increase, took the honors as the fastest growing vendor, although the rate of increase slowed from the 62% pace seen in the fourth quarter. The vendor's share of the market was at 8% in the first quarter.

Microsoft Azure was the second-largest cloud service provider in the first quarter. The cloud service had a 21% market share and saw 46% year-over-year growth.

During Monday morning trading, Amazon shares were down 2.72% to $2,418.11, according to Benzinga Pro data. Microsoft was adding 0.88% to $279.97 and Alphabet's Class A stock was gaining 0.78% to $2,300.00.

Photo: Created with an image from Tony Webster on Flickr