Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting, Asia/Pacific 18 December 2013 ID:G00253153 Analyst(s): To Chee Eng, Kenshi Tazaki, Rolf Jester, Vincent Fu, Arup Roy VIEW SUMMARY Many providers offer cloud-enabled managed hosting services in Asia/Pacific, but most have immature services. This Magic Quadrant will help enterprises migrating to cloud-enabled managed hosting choose providers that can support their use cases and geographic requirements. Market Definition/Description Asia/Pacific does not have a long history of managed hosting, as many enterprises have traditionally kept their infrastructure in-house or colocated with an external data center provider. But this situation is changing quickly as an increasing number of providers offer cloud-enabled managed hosting in the region, as an evolution from traditional managed hosting. Many of these providers are in the early stage of cloud platform development, and have limited managed and professional services capabilities to exploit the advantages of their platforms in Asia/Pacific. Although they are generally suitable for general business applications, they may not be ready for complex enterprise applications or e-business hosting that requires high scalability or a high rate of change in systems and application infrastructure. Definitions This Magic Quadrant focuses on managed hosting services, with emphasis on delivery via a cloud infrastructure platform, for enterprises operating in Asia/Pacific. Cloud infrastructure platform. Cloud-enabled managed hosting is a standardized, productized offering that combines cloud-enabled system infrastructure (CESI) with managed services offered by a hosting provider or the hosting division of a broader vendor. The CESI must be owned by the provider, and it is located in the provider's data center and, optionally, in the customer's data center (see the definition of CESI below). Managed services. At minimum, the provider must supply server OS management services, including guest OSs if virtualization is used. The provider may optionally provide managed and professional services relating to the deployment and operation of the infrastructure. Optional managed and professional services include: https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 1/24
Management of infrastructure software at the middleware or persistence layer, such as Web servers, application servers and database servers Management of storage, including backup and recovery Management of security Management of network devices Professional services associated with cloud-enabled hosting, such as architecture, capacity planning, data center migration, performance testing and security auditing services CESI: This combines a pool of hardware with cloud management platform (CMP) software to create an infrastructure that encompasses compute, storage, and networking resources and capabilities. It is highly automated, scalable and elastic, and provides near-real-time on-demand service (for more details, see "Technology Overview for Cloud-Enabled System Infrastructure"). A cloud-enabled managed hosting customer must be able to access a self-service interface, which can be different from the interface available to the provider; furthermore, the provider can intervene in the selfservice workflow to manually approve, deny or alter the customer's requests. Cloud-enabled managed hosting requires the use of a CESI platform that is standardized across all customers. It has limited customization and is sold on a stand-alone basis, with no requirement to bundle it with other services such as application development, application maintenance and data center outsourcing (DCO) services. Evolution of Managed Hosting Market This Magic Quadrant is an evolution from Magic Quadrants on managed hosting published for other regions, in which providers are increasingly using cloud infrastructure platforms to deliver services (see "Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting, North America" and "Magic Quadrant for European Managed Hosting"). This is similar to the trend in the DCO market during the past few years, where delivery has evolved to infrastructure utility services (see "Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Infrastructure Utility Services, North America," "Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Infrastructure Utility Services, Europe" and "Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Infrastructure Utility Services, Asia/Pacific"). This Magic Quadrant does not cover traditional DCO services or infrastructure utility services offered by providers evaluated in the above-mentioned Magic Quadrants. For an understanding of the positioning of DCO and infrastructure utility services in relation to traditional and cloud-enabled managed hosting, see"data Center Outsourcing, Hosting or Cloud? Use Gartner's Market Map and Compass to Decide." Types of Business Covered by This Evaluation This Magic Quadrant focuses on cloud-enabled hosting services for the following types of business: Western multinational companies (MNCs) operating in Asia: They typically host their IT infrastructure in at least two regional locations (hubs), typically Singapore and Hong Kong, and to a lesser extent in Japan and Australia. In some instances, they may require local IT hosting in India for back-end IT operations, and in China to support their large businesses there. Providers that address this segment must have presence in both Singapore and Hong Kong to be competitive, due to the role of these locations as both business and networking hubs. Asian businesses, including government and midmarket companies: Their operations are https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 2/24
typically domestic in nature. They require their IT infrastructure to be located within their markets for a variety of reasons, of which data security, data sovereignty and proximity hosting for application performance are the most important. Providers can support either or both types of business. As Asia/Pacific is a large region with 13 major markets, those that can support more markets are better placed to compete for leadership. Common Use Cases Common use cases for cloud-enabled hosting include: E-business hosting: Managed hosting for e-marketing sites, e-commerce sites, SaaS applications and similar modern websites and Web-based applications. These workloads are often complex, and are associated with a high rate of change in systems and application infrastructure. E-business hosting is in the early stages of implementation and is not yet prevalent in Asia/Pacific. Web-based business application hosting: Managed hosting for corporate intranets and Webbased applications delivered to users primarily within the enterprise. The applications may be commercial software or in-house-developed applications; workloads are often relatively light, and do not have a high rate of change. This is the most common requirement for Asia/Pacific businesses. Enterprise application hosting: Managed hosting for the infrastructure underlying large commercial software applications, such as those of Oracle and SAP. These workloads are often complex and require specialized knowledge to operate optimally, but do not have a high rate of change. Enterprise application hosting in the early stages of implementation and not yet prevalent in Asia/Pacific. Magic Quadrant Figure 1. Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting, Asia/Pacific https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 3/24
Source: Gartner (December 2013) Vendor and CtrlS Datacenters CtrlS Datacenters is a managed hosting provider in India, as well as an early public cloud provider in India. It targets enterprises and the banking and financial services sector. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed services. It also provides colocation services. Its cloud data centers are located in Hyderabad and Mumbai. CtrlS has good data center infrastructure. It invests in high-grade data centers, an important requirement in India due to the country's generally poor infrastructure. It is also expanding its data center coverage outside India to support foreign and local MNCs with inbound and outbound hosting requirements. It has data centers in the U.S. and United Arab Emirates, and it plans to https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 4/24
extend its coverage to Singapore and Australia. CtrlS provides high-availability services through its high-grade data centers, multi-availability zones and three-way disaster recovery architecture, with a zero-data-loss guarantee. It also has strong security implementations, with good certifications. It is strong in the banking and financial services sector. CtrlS has strong IT services skills, with experience of supporting secure payments and financial transactions for banking and financial services organizations. It tends to take a solution-led approach, which differentiates it from infrastructure-based players. CtrlS is a good choice for Web business hosting in India, as its cloud platform is built for a public cloud service. It has implemented an automated system for monitoring Internet performance in real time that can automatically divert Web traffic to alternative Internet links in cases of degradation. CtrlS is price-competitive, with a choice of hourly and monthly plans. Pricing is also transparent, as in a typical public cloud service. CtrlS also provides volume discounts for enterprise deals. CtrlS has a well-designed cloud management portal, which is easy to use and offers a good choice of features. Customers also say that CtrlS provides good service quality and is very responsive to their requirements. CtrlS is still largely a player in India. It is beginning to expand its presence outside its home country, but most of its staff and skills are still concentrated there. CtrlS is relatively young compared with the large and established players in the Asia/Pacific market. The company is funded by private investors and has been investing heavily to support its growth strategy. It has completed its investments in data centers. Over the next three years, it plans to continue to invest aggressively in IT infrastructure, product development and managed services capabilities. It has secured funding for this investment, supported by its strong revenue growth in the past few years. The outlook for CtrlS is positive, although it needs to mature further to compete in a market dominated by large players. Datapipe Datapipe is a midsize U.S.-based managed cloud service provider. It has had a presence in Asia since 2005, initially as a managed hosting provider and now also as a cloud hosting provider. Its target customers are MNCs. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant, customer premises and hybrid options, as well as related managed IT services. It also provides colocation services. It has two cloud data centers in Hong Kong, one in Shanghai (China), and one in Singapore, which opened in 4Q13. These are connected to its data centers in the U.S. and the U.K. to form a global cloud platform. Datapipe has a regional footprint, with presence in China. It supports MNCs with regional requirements through its data centers in Hong Kong and Singapore, the key regional hubs. It is also one of the few providers that can support domestic requirements in mainland China, an important emerging market. Datapipe has a good IaaS product portfolio, with a full range of cloud-enabled hosting services. It is also a Premier Consulting Partner with Amazon Web Services (AWS), a third-party public cloud service. Through this partnership, it can provide its managed services on top of the AWS platform, as well as provide a hybrid solution that includes AWS. All services can be managed via a common cloud management portal. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 5/24
Datapipe provides a broad range of managed services, including database, Web server, security and application management. It also offers PCI compliance solutions for e-commerce. Datapipe offers good SLAs, with 99.99% availability for compute, and 100% availability guarantees for storage and network. Datapipe offers a simple, customer-friendly pricing scheme, with hourly and monthly options. The price includes fully managed services up to the application layer. Its prices are also competitive when including managed services. Datapipe has shown increasing ability to win contracts from large MNCs, including those in Asia, due to its broad range of services and experience with managed hosting. Datapipe has a growing but still small presence in Asia/Pacific, which makes it difficult for it to make a big impact on the market, given Asia's large geographical size. Datapipe's cloud data centers in China and Singapore are relatively new. The company needs to increase its local service and support capabilities in these markets to become a strong regional player. Dimension Data Dimension Data, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Group in Japan, is a large global system integrator with a strong regional presence in Asia. It has a long history in managed services, and is now branching into the cloud. Its target customers are enterprises, including MNCs and midmarket companies, government organizations and communications service providers (CSPs). It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It also supports colocation. It operates cloud data centers in Australia (two), Hong Kong, Japan, India and Indonesia. Dimension Data's cloud platform provides a single unified architecture for its public and private cloud services, with a common CMP and API that supports self-service and automation for both environments. All of Dimension Data's cloud data centers, including those jointly operated with local partners in Indonesia and India, are connected to its data centers in the U.S., Europe and South Africa to form a global cloud platform and offer a consistent unified service. Dimension Data has 11 cloud data centers worldwide. Dimension Data provides a good range of managed services, including tiered storage and global backup, security, application management and professional services for data center consolidation and cloud migration. The company is undergoing global certification for SAP cloud hosting and the SAP Fast-Start Program in 4Q13. It also expects to achieve global certification for PCI compliance in 2Q14. Dimension Data provides a good SLA, with 99.99% availability. It provides 24/7 support within the region via its global service centers in Melbourne (Australia), Bangalore (India) and Singapore. It also provides free load balancing and free WAN optimization between its cloud data centers to enhance application performance. Dimension Data is price-competitive, offering a choice of hourly and monthly plans, and no charge for servers in a nonrunning state. Pricing is also transparent, as in a typical public cloud service. The company is also reasonably flexible with its commercial terms for enterprise deals. Dimension Data has a well-developed wholesale program, which will enable it to address opportunities in more countries, particularly developing markets. Through its OneCloud Partner https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 6/24
Programme, it provides cloud platform, data center operations, sales and marketing enablement and revenue sharing. Dimension Data has partnerships with several CSPs, including BSNL (India), PT Indosat (Indonesia) and Hutchison Communications (Hong Kong). Dimension Data has limited experience of providing managed hosting in Asia. Until recently, most of its experience related to managed network services and building and operating private data centers for enterprises. It is now extending its skills to managed hosting services. Dimension Data has limited experience and professional capabilities to support large or complex environments with legacy IT. It is building a dedicated cloud consulting and professional services team, drawing on skills from its traditional line of business. It is too early to tell whether Dimension Data's OneCloud Partner Programme will increase its opportunities significantly, as its partners have little of the experience and brand recognition needed to support the IT requirements of enterprises and will depend on Dimension Data for most of the delivery requirements. Dimension Data currently supports only VMware for virtualization, when most providers are increasingly hypervisor-agnostic. However, it will be able to support Microsoft Hyper-V in 1Q14. Dimension Data lacks a cloud data center in Singapore, which is needed to complete its value proposition for MNCs. Fujitsu Fujitsu is a large global IT services provider and the largest in Asia, based largely on its dominance of the IT services market in Japan. Its target customers are enterprises and midmarket companies. It offers cloud-enabled managed hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. Its cloud data centers are in Japan, Singapore, Australia and Thailand. Fujitsu has a fairly good regional cloud data footprint, with presence in four markets. It can support MNCs in the regional hubs, except Hong Kong, as well as in Thailand, an important location for manufacturers. It can also support hosted private clouds in China via a partner-owned, Fujitsu-operated data center in China. Fujitsu's multitenant service is based on its Fujitsu Cloud IaaS Trusted Public S5 service, while its hosted and private cloud service is based on its Fujitsu Cloud IaaS Private Hosted service. Fujitsu has strong R&D capabilities and is investing in its own technology to build an integrated platform that can support a full range of cloud services, including IaaS, platform as a service and SaaS. Fujitsu provides a full range of managed and IT services, and is well regarded for system integration, security and application management, which makes it suitable for supporting large or complex requirements. Fujitsu has introduced a common management portal for all its different cloud environments, although it still needs to improve its automation features. It also has an IT infrastructure management service that can monitor a customer's entire IT infrastructure, including premisesbased systems. Fujitsu has a track record in managed hosting, typically as part of a larger IT services or DCO contract. Customers in Asia say it provides a good-quality service, with responsive service and support. Fujitsu offers competitive pricing, with a choice of hourly and monthly plans. Pricing is also transparent, as in a typical cloud service. Fujitsu is also reasonably flexible in its commercial terms https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 7/24
for enterprise deals. Fujitsu has a large base of existing customers, to which it can sell cloud services. It has a very large market share in Japan, and a good record of success with enterprises and government agencies in other markets. Fujitsu's Cloud IaaS Private Hosted service is inconsistent, the result of separate cloud development efforts at regional level in the past. Although the service is VMware-based, other hypervisors, such as Microsoft's Hyper-V, are supported in Japan. Fujitsu is standardizing its product line, including managed services, for global consistency, but this work is still in progress. Fujitsu's market presence is uneven. It is overwhelmingly strong in Japan. Elsewhere, it is focused on Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. It also has a tendency to target Japanese companies with operations across the region, and to focus less on the international market. Fujitsu's operations in markets other than Japan and Australia tend to be product-centric. This means they tend to lack the depth of managed services experience seen in the mature markets. HP HP's Enterprise Services division is a large global IT services provider, with a long track record in managed services and outsourcing. Its target customers are enterprises, upper-midmarket companies and CSPs. It offers cloud-enabled managed hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It also offers colocation as part of its service portfolio. Its cloud data centers are in Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and India. HP has a fairly good regional cloud data center footprint, and plans to expand its coverage to more markets. It can support MNCs in the regional hubs, except for Hong Kong. It is also one of only a few providers to have a presence in India, an important location for MNCs with back-end IT operations in that country. HP provides a full range of managed and IT services, including disaster recovery, database management, application management, and consulting and professional services, which makes it suitable for supporting large or complex requirements. HP's multitenant platform now supports both VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V, and the company plans to extend support to more hypervisors later. It also has strong security implementations, with recent experience of handling a major government cloud project. HP has an extensive road map for product enhancements during the next two years, which is an indication of its commitment to the worldwide market. HP has a long track record in managed hosting, typically as part of a larger IT services or DCO contract. Customers in Asia say it provides a high-quality service, with good service and support. HP has a large base of existing customers to which it can sell cloud services. It is making good progress in terms of penetrating the CSP segment, both as a customer and a channel. This will widen its ability to address opportunities in the market. HP's standard SLA for IaaS availability is 99.9%, which is relatively low compared with some of its competitors. However, it can offer up to 99.999% availability for customized configurations, similar to other major providers. HP's cloud platform is robust but generally undifferentiated, though new features on its product https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 8/24
road map will enhance the platform significantly. IBM IBM is a large global IT services provider, with an extensive presence in Asia. It has a long track record in IT outsourcing, including DCO and managed hosting. Its target customers are enterprises and government organizations. It offers cloud-enabled managed hosting, with a choice of multitenant, singletenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It also offers colocation services. Its cloud data centers in Australia and Japan support its SmartCloud Enterprise+ (SCE+) product. It also has a data center in Singapore that supports SoftLayer, its newly acquired hosting platform. It also provides cloud virtual server recovery services from its data centers in Australia, Japan, Singapore and India. IBM has a long track record in managed hosting, typically as part of a larger IT services or DCO contract. IBM provides a full range of managed and IT services, including disaster recovery, database management and security services. IBM has a good understanding of the legacy environment, with strong applications and vertical market expertise, which gives it an advantage in large and complex environments. IBM is using its SCE+ cloud platform as the foundation for its e-business hosting and Applications on Demand business, which includes managed SAP and Oracle services. IBM's recent acquisition of SoftLayer Technologies, which has a cloud data center in Singapore, will give it a competitive platform for enterprises with e-business hosting requirements, as well as for those that want the performance of "bare metal" services in a cloud consumption model. IBM has a large base of existing customers to which it can sell cloud services. IBM has a limited cloud data center footprint, compared with other large providers. It serves the region from its cloud data centers in Australia, Japan and Singapore. To widen its ability to address opportunities in other markets, it plans to expand its footprint to Hong Kong, China and India in 2014. IBM's SCE+ is a standard global offering, but it is relatively new in Asia, where it has few customers to validate its capabilities. It has more customers in North America and Europe, the sites of the first implementations. Its standard SLA for availability is 99.9%, which is relatively low compared with its competitors. However, it can offer up to 99.999% availability for customized configurations, similar to other major providers. IBM's recently acquired SoftLayer platform is still offered as a stand-alone service, although customers have the option of purchasing managed services on top of this service. IBM is integrating its legacy public cloud service with SoftLayer, a process scheduled for completion in early 2014. IBM lacks a common CMP across the SCE+ and SoftLayer environments. This is under development, but when it will be available is unclear. IBM's strategy is to use OpenStack for the eventual integration. Customers say that IBM tends to steer them toward a private or hosted private cloud, even though it has a multitenant service. This is changing, however, and the change will accelerate in 2014 as IBM expands its cloud footprint and integrates its platforms with SoftLayer. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 9/24
IIJ Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) is a major Internet and network services provider as well as a leading managed hosting provider in Japan. It was among the first to launch a public cloud service in Japan. Its target customers are enterprises and midmarket companies. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, including multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It also offers colocation services. IIJ has over 10 years' experience providing managed hosting services in Japan for Web and e- business hosting. It also has strong system integration capabilities. This experience has strengthened its technical and operational skills for cloud-enabled hosting services. IIJ has a strong base of customers, and is known for its good service quality. IIJ has good geographic coverage in Japan, with four cloud data centers. It is expanding its international footprint, primarily to support its Japanese customers. It has set up cloud data centers in the U.S., U.K. and China. It is among the few providers that can provide cloud-enabled hosting in China, an important requirement for enterprises with extensive business in that country. It also plans to extend its footprint to Singapore by 1Q14. IIJ has developed its own cloud management software, with the ability to support a wide range of hypervisors, including VMware vsphere and vcenter, Microsoft Hyper-V and open-source Xen. It has good security implementations. It also offers good SLAs, with 99.99% availability for virtual machines. IIJ offers a good range of managed services, including storage management and security management. It also provides range of professional services, including cloud design, implementation, migration support and system integration with the cloud. It has a wide range of customers from different industries. IIJ has deep in-house technical skills and frequently introduces new products and capabilities. It has developed a unified operations and management capability for hybrid cloud and IT environments. It has a software library with over 130 OSs, virtual appliances and middleware. It has also introduced a SAP-certified cloud service, as well as system infrastructure specifically for big data analytical requirements. IIJ still competes largely in Japan. While it is expanding its footprint outside Japan, this expansion is in its early stages and driven mainly by Japan-based MNCs with international requirements. IIJ has strong technology, but is limited in its marketing. It is not well-known outside Japan. It also needs to be more transparent about its service road map and enhancement plan, which will help customers gain a clear understanding of its services' value. IIJ is successful with midmarket companies. While it is gaining increasing acceptance from large enterprises, it has limited experience of meeting complex mission-critical requirements. NTT Communications NTT Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Group in Japan, is a global CSP with a strong presence in Asia. It is also a leading hosting services provider, with an extensive data center footprint. It is expanding aggressively into cloud-enabled managed hosting services, targeting both MNCs and Asian enterprises. Its service, named Enterprise Cloud, offers multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed services. It also supports colocation. Its cloud data centers are located in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 10/24
NTT Communications provides the best geographical coverage in Asia. It is the only provider with presence in all four regional hubs, and it also has presence in the secondary markets. It will expand its coverage to China and India in 2014. In India, it will provide services via NetMagic, an Indian data center operator that it has acquired. NTT Communications' footprint positions it well to support MNCs, as well as Asian enterprises with domestic requirements. All of NTT Communications' cloud data centers in Asia are connected to its cloud data centers in the U.S. and the U.K. to form a global cloud platform and offer a consistent, unified service. Customers can provision and manage their cloud resources across its global cloud infrastructure. NTT Communications has a common cloud management portal for hybrid clouds, including third-party cloud services such as Microsoft Azure. The portal provides service automation and integrated management capabilities. NTT Communications offers good SLAs, with 99.99% monthly availability. This is guaranteed on an individual component basis, including server, storage, virtual firewall and virtual load balancer. NTT Communications provides a broad range of managed and IT services, including database management, disaster recovery, network device management and cloud migration. Application performance management is also available from a group company. NTT Communications has strong security capabilities. It has integrated Integralis and Secode, its acquired security companies, with NTT's security unit to form a single security entity. This entity provides consulting and professional services, as well as managed security, which are important for enterprises. However, security is a separate service that needs to be added to the hosting contract. NTT Communications is strong in product innovation and has launched a wide range of new enhancements in 2013, including high-performance storage, Oracle database clustering and a SAP-certified service. It has also launched an automated IT infrastructure management service that can span a customer's entire IT infrastructure, including premises-based systems. NTT Communications offers price and billing flexibility. It offers a choice of per-minute and monthly pricing. It sells based on a per-resource pool and per virtual machine. It provides free Multiprotocol Label Switching and Internet connectivity. Its prices are fairly competitive. It provides billing in eight currencies: yen, U.S. dollar, euro, Singapore dollar, Hong Kong dollar, Australian dollar, Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit. It also provides guaranteed uncontended utilization, with free bursting of up to 25%. NTT Communications' Enterprise Cloud service is relatively new. It also has limited experience with managed hosting; its experience largely relates to colocation, dedicated hosting and Web hosting. Although NTT Communications has extended its cloud platform to many markets, its managed services capabilities in most markets are immature. It needs to build up its consulting and professional services, technical service and support, and sales capabilities in locations where its service is available. NTT Communications' capabilities are not well-known outside Japan, although its business is growing and it has the ability to win some large and complex projects. Orange Business Services Orange Business Services is a global CSP with extensive presence in Asia/Pacific. It targets MNCs and enterprises. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 11/24
premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It provides colocation as part of its managed service portfolio. Its cloud data centers are located in Australia, Singapore and, since 4Q13, Hong Kong. Orange was among the earliest CSPs to provide data center consolidation, virtualization and managed services in Asia. It has gained significant experience, which it is now using to extend into cloud services. Orange has a regional footprint, which gives it the ability to support MNCs with regional requirements through its data centers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. These data centers are connected to its data centers in Europe and the U.S. to form a global cloud platform. Orange has a comprehensive catalog of services, which gives it the flexibility to customize individual solutions for customers. It has a sizable consulting and professional services team, supported by well-defined methodologies and processes, to support customers with cloud migration. Orange provides a good range of managed services, including storage and backup, OS and middleware management, and application performance management. It also offers cloudcommunications services as an additional differentiator. Orange provides end-to-end service management, including support for quality of service and SLAs for networks, IaaS, OSs and applications. It also provides a choice of centralized billing or local billing in various currencies. Orange's cloud infrastructure is relatively new in Asia. Until recently, Orange's experience was largely limited to data center consolidation and virtualization and managed services for a small number of customers. Orange's has limited experience and professional services capabilities for supporting complex enterprise applications, but it has partnerships with strong IT services providers to deliver a complete solution. Orange has won contracts from both MNCs and large domestic enterprises in Asia. However, Orange as a company focuses strongly on the global MNC segment for its core network and communications services. It is unclear whether Orange's head office wants to fully address local opportunities as part of its overall business strategy. Rackspace Rackspace is a U.S.-headquartered hosting provider with a long track record of leadership in the managed hosting market in the U.S. and Europe. It has offered managed hosting services from its Hong Kong data center since 2008, including support for U.S. companies with hosting requirements in Asia. It is now expanding its presence in Asia, and it is at an early stage of execution. It targets enterprises, including MNCs. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed services. It provides colocation as part of its managed hosting services portfolio. Its cloud data centers are located in Hong Kong, Australia, the U.S. and Europe. Rackspace has a good understanding of enterprises' essential requirements, and has developed a product and service strategy focused on a reliable platform, good service and support, and competitive prices. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 12/24
Rackspace has a strong cultural focus on providing superior, high-touch service, an approach validated by its large base of customers in the U.S. Rackspace is a cofounder of OpenStack, which it is championing as an open CMP. This resonates with enterprises looking to avoid lock-in and achieve better interoperability in the long term. While the OpenStack platform has performed well for Rackspace in its first year in production, whether it can achieve a position as a leading CMP remains to be seen. Rackspace is very price-competitive. Its prices are lower than most of its competitors, largely due to its focus on open source, standardization and a narrower product portfolio. Rackspace has an adequate range of managed services, with good security implementations. Rackspace's presence in Asia is very small, due to a past lack of a clear strategy for Asia, which inhibited its investments in infrastructure and people. Consequently, it has a low mind share in the region, which limits its growth. It has increased its investments in the region significantly in the past year, but it will take time to close the gap with its competitors. Rackspace's cloud services in Hong Kong and Australia are new, having been launched in 2013. It also lacks presence in Singapore, an important regional hub for MNCs. Early feedback from Rackspace's customers in Asia indicates that its overall service quality is good, although not comparable to user experiences in the U.S. Rackspace has a small local support team in Asia, which is backed up after office hours by support teams in the U.S. and Europe using a "follow the sun" support model. Rackspace lacks a professional services team in Asia, which limits its ability to support large or complex requirements. Consequently, its customers tend to be midmarket companies with simpler hosting requirements. Savvis Savvis, a CenturyLink company that will be renamed CenturyLink Technology Solutions in January 2014, is a U.S.-based managed hosting provider with a long track record of leadership in the managed hosting market in the U.S. Its target customers are enterprises, including MNCs. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It also offers colocation services. It operates cloud data centers in Singapore, India, Japan and Hong Kong. Savvis was one of the earliest U.S.-based hosting providers to establish a presence in Asia and it has several years' experience of offering managed hosting in this region. Savvis has a good regional cloud data footprint, with presence in three regional hubs and in India, an important location for MNCs with back-end IT operations in that country. Savvis offers a broad range of managed and related IT services, including database management, security management, and consulting and professional services for large or complex requirements. Savvis has a good understanding of security, with strong security implementations, governance and certifications, as part of its strategy to target the banking and finance sector, as well as enterprises. Savvis has an established customer support center in Singapore, backed up by another in Bangalore, India. These are part of a global network of support centers. Savvis supports a wide range of currencies for billing purposes, which gives it more flexibility to address local opportunities. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 13/24
Savvis has limited market traction in Asia, even though it was an early market entrant. This is due to its history of focusing on both network and hosting services, and being overshadowed by large players in both segments. Savvis's regional organization, while larger than those of its U.S. peers, lacks operating maturity due to frequent turnover of staff in the past few years, which weakens its ability to compete in the market. It has stepped up investments in managers and skilled IT personnel to support its growth strategy. Savvis does not offer premises-based services, which are important for many enterprises. Savvis has multiple cloud IaaS offerings, which can leave customers unsure which service best suits their needs. Customers also say that its cloud management portal is relatively difficult to use. Sify Sify is a major managed hosting and network services provider in India. It targets enterprises and midmarket companies. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed services. It also offers a public cloud service and colocation. Its cloud data centers are located in Mumbai and Bangalore, India. Sify has an extensive data center footprint in India, which puts in a strong position to offer cloudenabled hosting services. Sify offers a comprehensive range of managed and related IT services, including disaster recovery, security, database management and application server management. Sify has strong software development skills and invests significantly in R&D. It developed its own CMP using technologies from multiple vendors and open-source technologies, with the objective of being hypervisor-neutral. It supports VMware for public clouds, and VMware, Microsoft Hyper-V and Xen for private clouds, with full automation and management across both kinds of environment. Sify has a well-designed cloud management portal, which is easy to use and offers a good choice of features. Sify provides end-to-end service management, with SLAs for cloud platform, network infrastructure and applications. Sify offers a flexible pricing scheme, with a choice of hourly and monthly rates. Each service component is priced at the most granular level. Prices are also transparent, as in a typical public cloud service, with volume discounts for enterprise deals. Sify is an India-only player as it lacks infrastructure and presence outside its home market. This limits its ability to address opportunities that are emerging in other markets in Asia. Sify's ability to continue investing in its cloud business might be limited by its previous weak financial performance. However, it has returned to profitability in the past two quarters. If it can remain profitable, this uncertainty will diminish. Sify's service is relatively new. Customers say that Sify's overall service quality is good, but that it needs to improve its provisioning and monitoring process and its billing. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 14/24
SingTel SingTel is the leading CSP in Singapore. It is an early provider of public and managed cloud services in its home market, where it has experience of supporting a large cross-section of customers. It is a strong player in Singapore and is now expanding its service in Asia/Pacific, particularly in Australia where it has a strong presence through SingTel Optus. Its target customers are enterprises, MNCs and government organizations. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It also offers a public cloud service and colocation. It operates cloud data centers in Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong. SingTel can serve enterprises in Singapore and Australia, where it has a strong presence, as well as MNCs with regional requirements through its cloud data centers in Singapore, Australia, and Hong Kong. SingTel offers the full range of cloud-enabled hosting services. It is also a major provider of colocation services, which augment its managed hosting capabilities. SingTel has a broad portfolio of managed and IT services, including database management, security, and consulting and professional services. SingTel has a large IT services arm in Singapore and Australia, which has long experience in IT services, including managed hosting. This will enable SingTel to handle large and complex environments. SingTel has strong experience in the government sector in Singapore. It recently completed a whole-of-government community cloud, which it operates as a service, for the Singaporean government. SingTel has a strong enterprise brand in Singapore and is using its core network and communications services to differentiate itself from non-network players. It has integrated its IT and network operations into a single delivery organization to provide end-to-end service management. SingTel's cloud platform in Hong Kong is new and small. SingTel needs to increase its local service and support capabilities in this market to become a strong regional player. SingTel's cloud-enabled managed hosting service and public cloud service are based on different platforms. It rolled out a new platform in 4Q13, which integrated both platforms with a common cloud management portal. For virtualization, SingTel currently supports only VMware, while competing providers are increasingly hypervisor-neutral. Telstra Telstra is the leading CSP in Australia. It is an early managed cloud service provider in its home market and has won a significant number of large customers. It has established itself as a strong player in Australia, and is now expanding its presence in Asia, the U.K. and the U.S. Its target customers in Australia are enterprises, government organizations and midmarket companies. Outside Australia, it is targeting MNCs. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and baremetal options, as well as related managed services. It also offers colocation services. It operates two cloud data centers in Australia. It also launched cloud data centers in Singapore, Hong Kong and the U.K. in 4Q13. They are connected to its network to form an international cloud platform. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 15/24
Telstra has a strong base in Australia, and can now support MNCs with regional requirements through its cloud data centers in Singapore and Hong Kong. Its cloud data center in the U.K. also serves as a gateway for U.K. companies with hosting requirements in Asia. Telstra has a small but good portfolio of key managed services, including security, backup and disaster recovery management. It also offers PCI compliance services for e-commerce. Telstra has built a small but good cloud consulting and professional services practice over the past few years, and can handle large cloud migration projects. Customers say that it provides good service quality. Telstra provides end-to-end service management, with SLAs for cloud platform, network infrastructure and applications. Telstra focuses on providing a good customer experience, a very user-friendly cloud customer portal and a globally consistent product. Telstra provides a choice of hourly and monthly pricing, and supports pricing and billing in multiple currencies outside Australia. Telstra has a strong enterprise brand in Australia and is using its core network and communications services to provide differentiation against non-network players. It also has a strategic partnership with Accenture to deliver a complete solution for complex requirements. Telstra's cloud platform in Singapore and Hong Kong are new. It needs to increase its local service and support capabilities in these markets to be a strong regional player. Telstra lacks a public cloud service, an important requirement for enterprises with Web-hosting and e-commerce needs. Telstra supports a limited range of hypervisors and applications due to its strong alignment with a few key vendors. Verizon Verizon, a leading CSP in the U.S., offers cloud-enabled managed hosting services through Verizon Terremark, its hosting and cloud business unit. It is a strong managed hosting provider in the U.S. and Europe. Its target customers are MNCs. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with virtual and dedicated servers over a multitenant infrastructure, a customer premises option and related managed services. It also offers colocation services. Its cloud data center is in Hong Kong and is connected via its network to its data centers in the U.S. and the U.K. to form a global cloud platform. Verizon has strong technology skills and managed hosting experience in its home market of the U.S. and in Europe. It also has an existing colocation and managed hosting business in Asia. These combined attributes will provide the foundation for its expansion into Asia. Verizon has long experience of operating an enterprise-class VMware-virtualized cloud platform, with good redundancy, security and automation capabilities. It also offers a choice of virtual and dedicated servers. Verizon is a global network services provider with a strong presence in Asia. It is using its regional sales, professional services, and service and support capabilities to grow its cloud hosting service in the region. Verizon has a strong security practice, which is a key differentiator for supporting large and complex cloud migration projects. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 16/24
Verizon has shown an ability to win contracts from MNCs, including those in Asia, despite its limited cloud data center coverage. Verizon places a strong focus on research and development to drive innovation and cost savings, and has the potential to be competitive in the public cloud sector. Verizon has been offering colocation and managed hosting services in Asia for many years, but its business remains small. Managed hosting is now a key product for Verizon, especially after its acquisition of Terremark. Verizon's cloud data center coverage is limited to Hong Kong. This is not sufficient for MNCs, which typically need at least two regional locations, the other being Singapore. It plans to extend its footprint in Asia in 2014, although it has not picked the locations. Verizon has rolled out only part of its broad product portfolio in Asia. It does not offer a hosted private cloud service, although such services are important for customers that do not want a multitenant environment. As an alternative, it offers a premises-based private cloud service. Verizon currently supports only VMware for virtualization, when most providers are increasingly hypervisor-neutral. Vendors Added and Dropped We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes as markets change. As a result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant or MarketScope may change over time. A vendor's appearance in a Magic Quadrant or MarketScope one year and not the next does not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor. It may be a reflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or of a change of focus by that vendor. Added None, as this is a new Magic Quadrant. Dropped None, as this is a new Magic Quadrant. Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria To be considered for this Magic Quadrant, each service provider had to meet the following criteria, as of June 2013: Products and services: The provider must offer a cloud-enabled managed hosting service that meets Gartner's market definition. It must offer this service as a multitenant offering in its own data center, and may optionally offer single-tenant or customer premises options. Technical and business capabilities in Asia/Pacific. The provider must operate a CESI platform https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 17/24
in one or several major markets in Asia/Pacific, with associated technical support, managed and professional services, and sales capabilities in the region. Market traction and momentum. As the market is evolving rapidly and has many players, we include only a select number of early market movers, innovative providers and potential market makers for this Magic Quadrant. To be included, a provider needs to be a major player in a key market or offer services in multiple markets, supported by CESI and associated capabilities in the region. Evaluation Criteria Ability to Execute This Magic Quadrant is aimed at businesses operating in Asia/Pacific, including MNCs with regional hosting requirements and Asia/Pacific businesses with domestic hosting requirements. As Asia/Pacific is a large region with 13 major markets, providers need to demonstrate that they can address multiple markets within the region with the support of a competitive cloud platform and associated capabilities. We gave high weightings to two criteria: Market Responsiveness/Record, which includes a provider's history and ability to respond to market needs and opportunities in the region; and Product or Service, which includes a provider's cloud platform, range of services, managed and professional services, and service availability in all key markets. Table 1. Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria Evaluation Criteria Weighting Product or Service High Overall Viability Medium Sales Execution/Pricing Medium Market Responsiveness/Record High Marketing Execution Medium Customer Experience Medium Operations Medium Source: Gartner (December 2013) https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 18/24
Completeness of Vision This Magic Quadrant is aimed at businesses operating in Asia/Pacific, including MNCs with regional hosting requirements and Asia/Pacific businesses with domestic hosting requirements. Due to the region's large size and fragmented geography, providers need a strong market understanding of their target segments, as this will determine their geographic focus, supported by a competitive cloud platform and associated capabilities. Ideally, a leading provider should provide services in all 13 major markets within Asia/Pacific. However, we recognized that this is not yet feasible due to the tremendous amount of resources required to address all these markets at a local level. As a result, we looked for providers that can support multiple markets today, and have the potential to become fuller regional providers in the future. Table 2. Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria Evaluation Criteria Weighting Market Understanding High Marketing Strategy Medium Sales Strategy Medium Offering (Product) Strategy High Business Model Medium Vertical/Industry Strategy Low Innovation Medium Geographic Strategy High Source: Gartner (December 2013) Quadrant Descriptions It is important to note that the most appropriate provider for an enterprise's particular situation could appear in any of the four quadrants. For example, if a Niche Player's capabilities match an enterprise's specific needs, it may be the best choice. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 19/24
Leaders Providers require a strong strategy to become a Leader in Asia/Pacific. They need to focus on investing in their products and geographic coverage, to the extent that they can become strong regional players. To build their market positions, they must have the ability and willingness to invest for the future. There are no Leaders in this Magic Quadrant because all the providers are still in early stages of execution and have not made enough progress with their offerings or geographic coverage to be placed in the Leaders quadrant. Challengers Challengers typically have a strong Ability to Execute, but trail the market in terms of geographic coverage or product evolution. They have experience in traditional managed hosting services, but they have not exploited technology and market demand to build highly competitive cloud-enabled managed hosting services. They could become Leaders if they extend their vision and strategy, but they could also fall quickly behind in this fast-moving market if they focus only on the short term. Visionaries Visionaries are typically early movers with an innovative or disruptive approach to the market. But they have limited geographic coverage, or services that are new and unproven. They may become Challengers or Leaders if they can execute strongly on their vision and the market accepts their services. Niche Players Niche Players typically perform well in a particular segment of the market, but have limited ability to outperform other providers in the region as a whole. Their focus on a particular segment or geography limits their ability to address the broader market. They tend to be relatively unknown outside their target market. Context This Magic Quadrant focuses on cloud-enabled managed hosting services for businesses in Asia/Pacific. These are standardized products that combine CESI with managed services. This Magic Quadrant focuses on services for the following types of business: Western MNCs operating in Asia, which typically host their IT infrastructure in at least two regional locations. Asian businesses, including government and midmarket companies, whose operations and requirements are typically domestic (see the Market Definition/Description section). This is the first Magic Quadrant on cloud-enabled managed hosting in Asia/Pacific. It is a development https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 20/24
from the Magic Quadrants for managed hosting in North America and Europe, both of which will become Magic Quadrants for cloud-enabled managed hosting in 2014. Each Magic Quadrant will focus on one region's specific needs, and together they will provide a complete view of the major markets. Traditional hosting services such as colocation and dedicated server offerings will continue to be considered by providers for the purpose of delivering a complete hybrid hosting solution, led by a cloudenabled hosting platform. But they will be de-emphasized as most providers are migrating to cloud platforms to remain relevant and competitive. The biggest challenge facing providers in Asia/Pacific is how to offer services across such a large and fragmented geographic area, one in which there are also major variations in IT maturity between countries. As such, a key part of our assessment focused on the geographic availability of services, with emphasis on those that support multiple markets across the region (see the Evaluation Criteria section). It is important to understand the relationship and distinctions between the Magic Quadrants on cloudenabled managed hosting and those on DCO and infrastructure utility services (for which see "Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Infrastructure Utility Services, North America," "Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Infrastructure Utility Services, Europe" and "Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Infrastructure Utility Services, Asia/Pacific"). The key distinctions are that: Cloud-enabled managed hosting offerings focus on standardized and productized services. Managed services are provided up to the hypervisor and OS level, with little or no customization. DCO and infrastructure utility service offerings provide managed services up the system level, with customization for complex application requirements. Management of the overall service operation is central to these offerings. Both types of service can be built on top of a CESI platform, on top of physical nonvirtualized hardware, or on top of virtualized infrastructure without self-service. The use of a CESI does not change the fundamental nature of these services; it only cloud-enables them (see "Technology Overview for Cloud-Enabled System Infrastructure"). Market Overview Asia/Pacific does not have a long history with managed hosting. Most IT infrastructure in this region is located on the customers' premises or colocated with a hosting provider. Management is typically done in-house. Managed hosting services, where deployed, are typically part of a bigger IT services or outsourcing contract. This market is led by established IT services providers and managed services providers. However, the market is changing rapidly. The arrival of cloud IaaS, coinciding with the trend for data center consolidation and virtualization, has attracted many players. They have typically focused on cloud-enabled managed hosting for enterprises, rather than public cloud services. With wider and easier availability of services, adoption is growing rapidly in Asia/Pacific, albeit from a low base. Adoption is led by developed markets such as Japan, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, but it is also emerging in developing markets, particularly India where there is a growing choice of strong local providers. Initial adoption is led by midmarket companies, but it is now extending to enterprises and government organizations as well. Early use cases focus on general business applications and Web hosting, but are beginning to extend to enterprise applications and e-business hosting. For aspiring regional providers, the biggest challenge is posed by Asia/Pacific's geography. It is large https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 21/24
region with a fragmented market and considerable diversity in terms of economic development and IT maturity. It is difficult for even large or strong providers to address all the country markets at once. Consequently, they focus on small number of markets, typically in the regional hubs of Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and Australia, and expand progressively to other markets over time. This leaves a large part of the region underserved. There is a wide range of players, including cloud and managed hosting providers (mostly from the U.S.), established IT services providers, and global and regional CSPs. In general, cloud and managed hosting providers have more mature cloud platforms, lead in technical innovation, and have better managed services capabilities, but they tend to lack strong regional presence. Established IT services providers have more managed hosting experience, typically as part of larger IT services or DCO deals, and deep presence in some country markets. CSPs lead in network and hosting services, typically offering end-to-end service management, including network, cloud infrastructure and application performance; they have strong presence in their home markets and can support MNCs with regional hosting requirements. The cloud-enabled managed hosting market in Asia/Pacific is growing and evolving rapidly. We expect it to mature at an accelerated pace, compared with other typical technology markets. As such, we believe this is the right time to introduce this Magic Quadrant. Purpose of Magic Quadrant The aim of this Magic Quadrant is to help enterprises migrating to cloud-enabled hosting services by establishing which providers are best placed to serve the needs of Asia/Pacific's broad market. We evaluated a select number that focus on the region's developed markets, particularly the key regional hubs. We also considered providers from India, as this country serves as the IT back-end for many MNCs. Additionally, we looked at providers in China, as there is a growing need for MNCs to host in this country as business expands there. However, China's service provider market is immature, partly due to regulatory barriers that hinder foreign providers from entering. As a result, we did not include any in this Magic Quadrant. We gave higher weightings to providers that: Serve multiple country markets, including the regional hubs to meet the requirements of MNCs. Offer cloud-enabled hosting that is competitive in terms of range of services, cloud platform, service features, managed services, consulting and professional services, and local service and support. Have a track record in managed hosting we take experience in managed hosting in this region as a proxy, since cloud-enabled hosting is an extension of traditional managed hosting. As this market is in its early stages of development, most providers lack a clear strategy to address enterprises' requirements in Asia/Pacific. Most are in the early stages of execution in terms of their cloud platform development, geographic coverage and experience of supporting enterprises. For these reasons, we have kept the level of Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute low, to reflect the current state of development. As the market progresses, we will raise the levels to reflect this progress. We expect the market to evolve greatly during the next few years. Enterprises should select the provider that best matches their needs in the near term and keep to shorter contracts. This will give enterprises the opportunity to select another provider as the market matures. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 22/24
Evaluation Criteria Definitions Ability to Execute Product/Service: Core goods and services offered by the vendor for the defined market. This includes current product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets, skills and so on, whether offered natively or through OEM agreements/partnerships as defined in the market definition and detailed in the subcriteria. Overall Viability: Viability includes an assessment of the overall organization's financial health, the financial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood that the individual business unit will continue investing in the product, will continue offering the product and will advance the state of the art within the organization's portfolio of products. Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor's capabilities in all presales activities and the structure that supports them. This includes deal management, pricing and negotiation, presales support, and the overall effectiveness of the sales channel. Market Responsiveness/Record: Ability to respond, change direction, be flexible and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve and market dynamics change. This criterion also considers the vendor's history of responsiveness. Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver the organization's message to influence the market, promote the brand and business, increase awareness of the products, and establish a positive identification with the product/brand and organization in the minds of buyers. This "mind share" can be driven by a combination of publicity, promotional initiatives, thought leadership, word of mouth and sales activities. Customer Experience: Relationships, products and services/programs that enable clients to be successful with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways customers receive technical support or account support. This can also include ancillary tools, customer support programs (and the quality thereof), availability of user groups, service-level agreements and so on. Operations: The ability of the organization to meet its goals and commitments. Factors include the quality of the organizational structure, including skills, experiences, programs, systems and other vehicles that enable the organization to operate effectively and efficiently on an ongoing basis. Completeness of Vision Market Understanding: Ability of the vendor to understand buyers' wants and needs and to translate those into products and services. Vendors that show the highest degree of vision listen to and understand buyers' wants and needs, and can shape or enhance those with their added vision. Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set of messages consistently communicated throughout the organization and externalized through the website, advertising, customer programs and positioning statements. Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling products that uses the appropriate network of direct and indirect sales, marketing, service, and communication affiliates that extend the scope and depth of market reach, skills, expertise, technologies, services and the customer base. Offering (Product) Strategy: The vendor's approach to product development and delivery that emphasizes differentiation, functionality, methodology and feature sets as they map to current and future requirements. https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 23/24
Business Model: The soundness and logic of the vendor's underlying business proposition. Vertical/Industry Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs of individual market segments, including vertical markets. Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital for investment, consolidation, defensive or pre-emptive purposes. Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs of geographies outside the "home" or native geography, either directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries as appropriate for that geography and market. 2013 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved. Gartner is a registered trademark of Gartner, Inc. or its affiliates. This publication may not be reproduced or distributed in any form without Gartner s prior written permission. If you are authorized to access this publication, your use of it is subject to the Usage Guidelines for Gartner Services posted on gartner.com. The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. Gartner disclaims all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information and shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in such information. This publication consists of the opinions of Gartner s research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice. Although Gartner research may include a discussion of related legal issues, Gartner does not provide legal advice or services and its research should not be construed or used as such. Gartner is a public company, and its shareholders may include firms and funds that have financial interests in entities covered in Gartner research. Gartner s Board of Directors may include senior managers of these firms or funds. Gartner research is produced independently by its research organization without input or influence from these firms, funds or their managers. For further information on the independence and integrity of Gartner research, see Guiding Principles on Independence and Objectivity. About Gartner Careers Newsroom Policies Site Index IT Glossary Contact Gartner https://www.gartner.com/technology/reprints.do?id=1-1q2w5bl&ct=140129&st=sg 24/24