The 3 Leaders in the Gartner Managed Service Provider Magic Quadrant

As part of our ongoing coverage of the cloud managed service provider market, we try to keep a close eye on the numerous and distinct solution providers that comprise this important sector of the cloud world. The key word here is distinct. Though they may seem similar, no two managed service providers offer the exact same products and services—each has their own strengths and weaknesses, sizes and focuses. While it’s natural for the latest innovations and gadgets to take up the most of our collective attention, there also needs to be a recognition of the pillars of the markets.

Our focus on this site leans towards DevOps best practices, and MSPs certainly fit into this category. DevOps is about more than tools but having the right cloud approach is important to optimize your workload and IT culture. MSPs are about helping companies get the most out of their cloud infrastructure, by providing services and tools that many companies won’t be able to manage on their own. Managing a large cloud infrastructure is difficult, having an MSP is important.

The following providers have recently been named Leaders in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Public Cloud Infrastructure Managed Service Providers (available here). While each company’s market share differs, these tools shape the foundation of the network monitoring market according to Gartner. Their report indicates that these leaders have a track record of successfully providing effective managed services to their users. These providers stand out as cornerstones in the market, offering tools for a wide variety of use cases, and thus in Gartner’s report are worthy of the Leader title. Gartner believes that they will continue to deliver leading-edge services. The four leaders Gartner named in their report are:

Accenture: Accenture offers solutions for all the hyperscale cloud providers (GCP, AWS, Azure). Accenture works with companies of varying backgrounds. They provide cloud-native capabilities. They offer their services to companies around the world.

Cloudreach: Cloudreach is a midsize hyperscale only MSP. It has offered services for AWS since 2009 and has expanded to Azure. They have one of the longest histories of working as an AWS MSP. They have been successful in large-scale global deployments and work with companies in the US and Western Europe.

Rackspace: Rackspace offer services for all the hyperscale cloud providers. They have distinct offerings for each of the hyperscale clouds that match the unique needs of each. They recently acquired Datapipe, who has a strong background in AWS.  Rackspace works with companies in America, Europe, and Australia.