CLOUD & DATA CENTER

Study Doubts Developers’ Trust in Hyperscale Cloud Providers

Survey shows developers equate performance and security of smaller hyperscale players to larger providers, but smaller players also offer an added benefit: aligning with SMB developers’ values.

India, August 12, 2021 – Alternative hyperscale cloud computing provider Linode today released surprising results of a survey designed to assess whether developers trust third-party cloud providers. ClearPath Strategies’ latest cloud survey revealed that while developers’ familiarity and comfort with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google positions the well-known providers as market frontrunners, developers often do not agree with their values.

ClearPath’s study gathered insights from more than 800 developers at small and mid-sized businesses (i.e., less than 500 full-time employees) in a wide variety of industries and geographies around the world.

The study found that although SMB developers voice trust in their provider of choice in general, a deeper examination of their values uncovers a trust issue when it comes to major cloud providers.

“Approximately 20% of developers believe that the Big 3 hyperscalers will engage in behaviors that include leveraging their brands to stifle competition, focusing on shareholders more than customer needs, hosting or working with customers that developers find morally objectionable, monetizing user data for their own use, and locking them in with proprietary tools,” said Stephanie Fairchild, senior analyst at ClearPath Strategies. “Criteria such as security and performance clearly take priority over these trust issues for developers, but it’s interesting to note that a sizable portion of developers are thinking about how their values align with those of their service providers.”

“It’s no secret that the extensive functionality and brand awareness of hyperscalers make them popular choices for developers, but their standing with SMBs weakens with respect to values,” said Blair Lyon, vice president, cloud experience, Linode. “An alternative cloud provider like Linode can be a more trustworthy partner for innovative upstarts—one that offers predictable pricing and doesn’t threaten or compete with their business. And when an alternative cloud provider such as Linode meets a developer’s functional needs—which is nearly always the case—developers can have the best of both worlds: a provider they can trust to meet their needs and one that shares their values as well.”

Additional findings of the Clearpath study include:

  • The survey reveals that trust plays an important role in developers’ choice of a cloud hosting provider but needs take precedence. When prioritizing needs or values, developers report they prioritize needs overvalues 73% of the time.
  • The Top 3 reasons cited for developers’ preference of their chosen third-party cloud provider: (1) security; (2) trust; and (3) quality of service.
  • Survey respondents indicated hyperscale and alternative cloud providers deliver equally effective performance and security.

Founded in 2003, Linode helped pioneer the cloud computing industry and is today the largest independent cloud provider in the world. The company empowers more than a million developers, startups, and businesses across its global network of 11 data centers.


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Brian Pereira

Brian Pereira is an Indian journalist and editor based in Mumbai. He is the Founding Editor of Digital Creed, which he founded in 2015. A technology buff, former computer instructor, and software developer, Brian has 28 years of journalism experience (since 1994). He is sound and confident about his knowledge of business technology concepts. And he is a believer in continual education/learning. Brian is the former Editor of CHIP and InformationWeek magazines (India). He has written hundreds of technology articles for India's leading newspaper groups such as The Times of India and Indian Express Newspapers (among others). And he has conducted more than 300 industry interviews during his journalism career. Brian also writes on Aviation, cybersecurity, startups, and topics directed at small and medium businesses. He achieved certifications from the EC-Council (Certified Secure Computer User) and from IBM (Basics of Cloud Computing). Apart from those, he has successfully completed many courses on Content Marketing and Business Writing. Follow Brian on Twitter (@creed_digital) and LinkedIn. Email Brian at: [email protected]

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