Methodology

The Gartner Magic Quadrant ranks cloud vendors on two criteria: Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision.

Execution is represented on the Y-axis of Gartner's chart; vision on the X-axis. That lands competitors into one of four quadrants: Niche Players (low in both criteria), Visionaries (complete vision but lacking execution), Challengers (good execution but lacking vision), and Leaders (excelling in both vision and execution).

Among the 14 providers evaluated this year, eight were relegated to Niche Player status. Four others, including newcomers to the list Alibaba Cloud and Oracle, were deemed Visionaries. Only Amazon Web Services and Microsoft, once again, made the Leaders quadrant.