In the highly competitive technology world, most businesses strive for complete domination of a market by driving out serious competition, a strategy known as “winner take all.”

But when it comes to the public cloud landscape and the evolving role of its three largest players – Amazon Web Services Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Google LLC – there may well be enough business where all can thrive in the decade ahead.

Although AWS continues to maintain its market share lead in the public cloud, a scenario is developing where the other major players will likely continue to grow.

“There’s no doubt in my mind that all three are going to win big in the future,” said John Furrier, co-host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio. “If you’re Google or Microsoft, you must have a competitive strategy to ride the tide. It’s winner take most.”

Furrier was joined by Dave Vellante, co-host of theCUBE, and cloud consultant Sarbjeet Johal for the kickoff of theCUBE on Cloud event. They discussed the current competitive position of the three largest cloud providers, a trend toward building new cloud businesses on hyperscaler platforms, the need for a comprehensive edge strategy, continued influence of developers, technology pricing models, and the recent suspension of hosting for a controversial social media site.

Google and Microsoft gain ground

The analysts presented recent cloud spending data showing Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud Platform growing faster than AWS.

“It’s just pedal as fast as you can for Microsoft,” Furrier noted. “Google is a bit different. They have a lot of big data capabilities, and they have to use that to their advantage.”

Google owns 90% of the search market but claims only 7% of the worldwide cloud share. This has been attributed to a delay in moving its attention from an advertising revenue focus and more toward the opportunity offered by an expanding cloud ecosystem.

“They got a late start,” Vellante said. “It took them a long time to get their heads out of their ads.”

In a previous analysis on Google and its position in the cloud market, Vellante made the point that Google would be well-served to pursue an aggressive strategy that focused on opportunities at the edge. Earlier this month, Google announced a partnership with Nokia Corp. to accelerate cloud-native 5G core and edge readiness.

“Google can definitely compete,” Furrier said. “If you want to be successful in cloud, you have to have a good edge strategy. It really is an edge game.”

New cloud category

In addition to the competitive landscape and edge strategies, another trend worth watching is the growth of major businesses that have leveraged the three largest hyperscalers to build influential cloud platforms. An example of this is Snowflake Inc., which went public last year with the largest software IPO in history.

“It’s a new category of cloud on cloud,” Furrier said. “If you look at what Snowflake did, this is telling. What Snowflake built was all on Amazon. That’s a wave that we’re watching.”

Another trend in the cloud space involves the continued influence of developers in the design of IT infrastructure. Cloud players have significant impact when it comes to shaping the agendas of enterprise developers, according to Johal.

“To developers, public cloud is a proxy for an innovative culture,” Johal said. “Companies that use best-of-breed technology can attract these developers.”

While cutting-edge technology may continue to drive cloud adoption, pricing will undoubtedly play an important role as well. Companies such as Datadog Inc. have captured business by calculating fees based on usage.

“Companies are beginning to proceed on a consumption basis,” Vellante noted. “That’s going to be one of the big trends in this decade. It’s a big sea change that I see coming.”

One of the more controversial developments in the cloud world occurred this month when AWS suspended hosting for the social network Parler in response to concerns around its alleged role in facilitating an attack on the U.S. Capitol building. Issues around cloud “deplatforming” may be an industry focus in the months ahead.

“Parler getting booted out from AWS was huge,” Johal said. “How do you know if a cloud provider will boot you out? That discussion has to take place.”

Here’s the complete video interview, part of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of theCUBE on Cloud event:

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