Channel Futures' Top 10 Cloud Stories of 2024: AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, VMware, AT&T

Nailing down the 10 top cloud computing stories of 2024 proved no easy feat for Channel Futures. The cloud sector’s impact on partners, vendors and customers was widespread this year. From more layoffs and sweeping changes to various channel programs, to big-name leader departures and a high-profile lawsuit, cloud computing saw no shortage of controversy or activity.

Of course, along the way there was the nonstop emphasis on artificial intelligence. The hyperscalers, in particular, beat that drum, so much that AI and cloud have likely become inextricably intertwined. To be sure, we see what Amazon Web Services, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud have done this year to make the various marriages of AI and cloud some of our top cloud stories.

But there also was a trend we’ll be watching throughout 2025, one that we expect will stick around as one of next year’s top cloud computing stories: more M&A on the part of large value-added resellers and system integrations picking up cloud managed service providers for their targeted expertise. Find out which major brands led that momentum in 2024. 

Then we address the elephant in the room: the various aspects of the Broadcom-VMware acquisition that fomented partner upset, rival-vendor opportunity, layoffs, executive attrition and, yes, a lawsuit in 2024. 

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In the slideshow above, we count down, from 10 to one, the top cloud computing stories of 2024. While many of the articles in our countdown are among those that brought the most traffic to our website in 2024, we recognize others for the overall impact they have had on the channel.