Cloud Communications Market Rocked by Microsoft, COVID-19 in 2020

By Craig Galbraith and Edward Gately

Microsoft has emerged as a major competitor in the cloud communications market, which has been heavily impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

That’s according to the Cloud Communications Alliance‘s latest annual survey of service providers and vendors. They enthusiastically weighed in on cloud trends and forecasts. And there is much that channel partners can glean from the results.

While respondents provided their answers back in July and August of 2020 when the pandemic was at its peak, there were some surprising results.

Clark Peterson is chairman of the CCA. He also is CEO of Ontologics, and is known well in the channel from his days at Vonage and Telesphere.

CCA’s Clark Peterson

“These international responses give us a unique window into how our market is evolving,” he said. “For example, the perception of Microsoft as a major key competitor rings true for many providers today, while Slack’s and Google’s perceived competitiveness slid year over year. The cloud communications market growth has accelerated because of the COVID-19 pandemic. People have been forced to realize the power of the cloud and a virtual world. It has quickly been realized as a business-saving solution in the short-term and a new, more flexible and global way of doing business for the long-term.”

Furthermore, the huge demand for cloud services means vendors are looking for new ways to differentiate and stay competitive.

Our slideshow above breaks down the survey’s most significant results. All charts and graphs courtesy the Cloud Communications Alliance and its survey partner, Cavell. You can see the full research here.