Originally reported by mspoweruser.com. Source data: Gartner Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Worldwide, 2019.
Gartner’s 2019 IaaS Magic Quadrant: The Big Picture
Research and advisory firm Gartner published its 2019 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) Worldwide, placing Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform in the Leaders quadrant. Of the three, AWS retained the top position, distinguished by the breadth, maturity, and continued innovation of its service portfolio. Microsoft Azure ranked second — ahead of Google Cloud — but notably lost ground on the “Ability to Execute” axis compared to the previous year’s report.
The report offers a structured view of where each major cloud provider stands in terms of both current delivery capability and long-term strategic vision. For teams evaluating cloud platforms or benchmarking vendor commitments, understanding where analysts see gaps is as important as understanding where providers excel.
Microsoft Azure: Strengths Identified by Gartner
- Deep Microsoft ecosystem integration: Enterprises already committed to Microsoft technology tend to choose Azure as their primary IaaS and PaaS provider. The end-to-end experience for building .NET applications in Visual Studio and deploying them directly to Azure was cited as particularly strong. Microsoft’s ability to co-sell Azure alongside its broader product portfolio (Office 365, Dynamics, etc.) is a significant adoption driver.
- Edge computing and IoT: Azure offers a well-integrated approach to edge and Internet of Things workloads, spanning from hyperscale data centers through edge solutions such as Azure Stack and Data Box Edge. This coherent edge-to-cloud story is a differentiator for industrial and distributed-computing use cases.
- Openness and innovation: By 2019, approximately 50% of Azure workloads were reported to be Linux-based, reflecting a meaningful shift toward open-source compatibility. Gartner also highlighted Microsoft’s strategy of bringing technology partners — including VMware, NetApp, Red Hat, Cray, and Databricks — into Azure as native, first-party offerings.
Microsoft Azure: Cautions Identified by Gartner
- Reliability and outages: Gartner flagged recurring reliability issues as a meaningful challenge. Since September 2018, Azure experienced multiple service-impacting incidents, including significant outages affecting Azure Active Directory. A key concern was that many of these incidents left customers with limited or no controls to mitigate the resulting downtime.
- Implementation expectations vs. reality: Gartner clients reported difficulties delivering projects on time and within budget. The report attributed this partly to Microsoft setting unrealistically high expectations during the sales cycle, combined with field sales teams that were not always well-positioned to scope Azure engagements accurately.
- Technical support quality and cost: Enterprises frequently criticized the quality of Microsoft’s technical support and field solution architects, alongside rising support costs. Gartner noted that poor support experiences negatively affect customer satisfaction and slow Azure adoption and spending growth.
Azure Revenue Growth: Strong Numbers, but a Long Road to Close the Gap
Microsoft’s FY19 Q4 earnings results (reported around the same time as this analysis) showed Azure revenue growing 64% year-over-year — a strong headline figure by any measure. However, AWS retains a substantially larger absolute market share, meaning that a 64% growth rate on a smaller base does not automatically close the gap in dollar terms. Analysts at the time suggested that to meaningfully challenge AWS’s lead within a few years, Azure would need to sustain triple-digit percentage growth rates — a bar that becomes progressively harder to clear as the business scales.
What This Means for Engineering and Platform Teams
The Gartner findings carry practical implications for DevOps and platform engineering teams evaluating or already operating on Azure:
- Design for resilience: Given the documented reliability incidents — particularly around identity services — teams should architect for Azure Active Directory failures using retries, circuit breakers, and multi-region redundancy where business requirements justify the cost.
- Validate sales commitments in writing: The caution around unrealistic implementation expectations is a known pattern with large cloud vendors. Require detailed Statements of Work, reference architectures, and explicit SLA definitions before committing to timelines or budgets.
- Budget for support tiers: If Azure is a primary platform, factor in the cost of elevated support plans early. Relying on community or basic support for production workloads may create risk given the quality concerns Gartner cited.
- Leverage the Microsoft ecosystem where it adds value: If your organization runs .NET, Active Directory, or Microsoft 365 heavily, Azure’s native integrations are a genuine productivity advantage — lean into them rather than defaulting to lowest-common-denominator cloud patterns.
Note: This article reflects the Gartner Magic Quadrant findings as reported in mid-2019. Cloud provider capabilities, market positions, and pricing change rapidly. Consult the most recent Gartner publications and vendor documentation before making current infrastructure decisions.