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2/10/2014 Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting, Asia/Pacific

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Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Enabled ManagedHosting, Asia/Pacific18 December 2013 ID:G00253153Analyst(s): To Chee Eng, Kenshi Tazaki, Rolf Jester, Vincent Fu, Arup Roy

VIEW SUMMARYMany providers offer cloud-enabled managed hosting services in Asia/Pacific, but most have immatureservices. This Magic Quadrant will help enterprises migrating to cloud-enabled managed hosting chooseproviders that can support their use cases and geographic requirements.

Market Definition/DescriptionAsia/Pacific does not have a long history of managed hosting, as many enterprises have traditionallykept their infrastructure in-house or colocated with an external data center provider. But this situation ischanging quickly as an increasing number of providers offer cloud-enabled managed hosting in theregion, as an evolution from traditional managed hosting.

Many of these providers are in the early stage of cloud platform development, and have limited managedand professional services capabilities to exploit the advantages of their platforms in Asia/Pacific.Although they are generally suitable for general business applications, they may not be ready forcomplex enterprise applications or e-business hosting that requires high scalability or a high rate ofchange in systems and application infrastructure.

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Definitions

This Magic Quadrant focuses on managed hosting services, with emphasis on delivery via a cloudinfrastructure platform, for enterprises operating in Asia/Pacific.

Cloud infrastructure platform. Cloud-enabled managed hosting is a standardized, productizedoffering that combines cloud-enabled system infrastructure (CESI) with managed services offered by ahosting provider or the hosting division of a broader vendor. The CESI must be owned by the provider,and it is located in the provider's data center and, optionally, in the customer's data center (see thedefinition of CESI below).

Managed services. At minimum, the provider must supply server OS management services, includingguest OSs if virtualization is used. The provider may optionally provide managed and professionalservices relating to the deployment and operation of the infrastructure.

Optional managed and professional services include:

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Management of infrastructure software at the middleware or persistence layer, such as Webservers, application servers and database serversManagement of storage, including backup and recoveryManagement of securityManagement of network devicesProfessional services associated with cloud-enabled hosting, such as architecture, capacityplanning, data center migration, performance testing and security auditing services

CESI: This combines a pool of hardware with cloud management platform (CMP) software to create aninfrastructure that encompasses compute, storage, and networking resources and capabilities. It is highlyautomated, scalable and elastic, and provides near-real-time on-demand service (for more details, see"Technology Overview for Cloud-Enabled System Infrastructure").

A cloud-enabled managed hosting customer must be able to access a self-service interface, which can bedifferent from the interface available to the provider; furthermore, the provider can intervene in the self-service workflow to manually approve, deny or alter the customer's requests.

Cloud-enabled managed hosting requires the use of a CESI platform that is standardized across allcustomers. It has limited customization and is sold on a stand-alone basis, with no requirement to bundleit with other services such as application development, application maintenance and data centeroutsourcing (DCO) services.

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Evolution of Managed Hosting Market

This Magic Quadrant is an evolution from Magic Quadrants on managed hosting published for otherregions, in which providers are increasingly using cloud infrastructure platforms to deliver services (see"Magic Quadrant for Managed Hosting, North America" and "Magic Quadrant for European ManagedHosting"). This is similar to the trend in the DCO market during the past few years, where delivery hasevolved to infrastructure utility services (see "Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing andInfrastructure Utility Services, North America," "Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing andInfrastructure Utility Services, Europe" and "Magic Quadrant for Data Center Outsourcing andInfrastructure Utility Services, Asia/Pacific").

This Magic Quadrant does not cover traditional DCO services or infrastructure utility services offeredby providers evaluated in the above-mentioned Magic Quadrants. For an understanding of thepositioning of DCO and infrastructure utility services in relation to traditional and cloud-enabledmanaged hosting, see"Data Center Outsourcing, Hosting or Cloud? Use Gartner's Market Map andCompass to Decide."

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Types of Business Covered by This Evaluation

This Magic Quadrant focuses on cloud-enabled hosting services for the following types of business:

Western multinational companies (MNCs) operating in Asia: They typically host their ITinfrastructure in at least two regional locations (hubs), typically Singapore and Hong Kong, and toa lesser extent in Japan and Australia. In some instances, they may require local IT hosting inIndia for back-end IT operations, and in China to support their large businesses there. Providersthat address this segment must have presence in both Singapore and Hong Kong to becompetitive, due to the role of these locations as both business and networking hubs.Asian businesses, including government and midmarket companies: Their operations are



typically domestic in nature. They require their IT infrastructure to be located within their marketsfor a variety of reasons, of which data security, data sovereignty and proximity hosting forapplication performance are the most important.

Providers can support either or both types of business. As Asia/Pacific is a large region with 13 majormarkets, those that can support more markets are better placed to compete for leadership.

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Common Use Cases

Common use cases for cloud-enabled hosting include:

E-business hosting: Managed hosting for e-marketing sites, e-commerce sites, SaaS applicationsand similar modern websites and Web-based applications. These workloads are often complex,and are associated with a high rate of change in systems and application infrastructure. E-businesshosting is in the early stages of implementation and is not yet prevalent in Asia/Pacific.Web-based business application hosting: Managed hosting for corporate intranets and Web-based applications delivered to users primarily within the enterprise. The applications may becommercial software or in-house-developed applications; workloads are often relatively light, anddo not have a high rate of change. This is the most common requirement for Asia/Pacificbusinesses.Enterprise application hosting: Managed hosting for the infrastructure underlying largecommercial software applications, such as those of Oracle and SAP. These workloads are oftencomplex and require specialized knowledge to operate optimally, but do not have a high rate ofchange. Enterprise application hosting in the early stages of implementation and not yet prevalentin Asia/Pacific.

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Magic QuadrantFigure 1. Magic Quadrant for Cloud-Enabled Managed Hosting, Asia/Pacific



Source: Gartner (December 2013)

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Vendor Strengths and Cautions

CtrlS Datacenters

CtrlS Datacenters is a managed hosting provider in India, as well as an early public cloud provider inIndia. It targets enterprises and the banking and financial services sector. It offers cloud-enabled hosting,with multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed services. Italso provides colocation services. Its cloud data centers are located in Hyderabad and Mumbai.

Strengths

CtrlS has good data center infrastructure. It invests in high-grade data centers, an importantrequirement in India due to the country's generally poor infrastructure. It is also expanding its datacenter coverage outside India to support foreign and local MNCs with inbound and outboundhosting requirements. It has data centers in the U.S. and United Arab Emirates, and it plans to



extend its coverage to Singapore and Australia.CtrlS provides high-availability services through its high-grade data centers, multi-availabilityzones and three-way disaster recovery architecture, with a zero-data-loss guarantee. It also hasstrong security implementations, with good certifications. It is strong in the banking and financialservices sector.CtrlS has strong IT services skills, with experience of supporting secure payments and financialtransactions for banking and financial services organizations. It tends to take a solution-ledapproach, which differentiates it from infrastructure-based players.CtrlS is a good choice for Web business hosting in India, as its cloud platform is built for a publiccloud service. It has implemented an automated system for monitoring Internet performance inreal time that can automatically divert Web traffic to alternative Internet links in cases ofdegradation.CtrlS is price-competitive, with a choice of hourly and monthly plans. Pricing is also transparent,as in a typical public cloud service. CtrlS also provides volume discounts for enterprise deals.CtrlS has a well-designed cloud management portal, which is easy to use and offers a good choiceof features. Customers also say that CtrlS provides good service quality and is very responsive totheir requirements.

Cautions

CtrlS is still largely a player in India. It is beginning to expand its presence outside its homecountry, but most of its staff and skills are still concentrated there.CtrlS is relatively young compared with the large and established players in the Asia/Pacificmarket. The company is funded by private investors and has been investing heavily to support itsgrowth strategy. It has completed its investments in data centers. Over the next three years, itplans to continue to invest aggressively in IT infrastructure, product development and managedservices capabilities. It has secured funding for this investment, supported by its strong revenuegrowth in the past few years. The outlook for CtrlS is positive, although it needs to mature furtherto compete in a market dominated by large players.

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Datapipe

Datapipe is a midsize U.S.-based managed cloud service provider. It has had a presence in Asia since2005, initially as a managed hosting provider and now also as a cloud hosting provider. Its targetcustomers are MNCs. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant,customer premises and hybrid options, as well as related managed IT services. It also providescolocation services. It has two cloud data centers in Hong Kong, one in Shanghai (China), and one inSingapore, which opened in 4Q13. These are connected to its data centers in the U.S. and the U.K. toform a global cloud platform.

Strengths

Datapipe has a regional footprint, with presence in China. It supports MNCs with regionalrequirements through its data centers in Hong Kong and Singapore, the key regional hubs. It isalso one of the few providers that can support domestic requirements in mainland China, animportant emerging market.Datapipe has a good IaaS product portfolio, with a full range of cloud-enabled hosting services. Itis also a Premier Consulting Partner with Amazon Web Services (AWS), a third-party publiccloud service. Through this partnership, it can provide its managed services on top of the AWSplatform, as well as provide a hybrid solution that includes AWS. All services can be managedvia a common cloud management portal.



Datapipe provides a broad range of managed services, including database, Web server, securityand application management. It also offers PCI compliance solutions for e-commerce.Datapipe offers good SLAs, with 99.99% availability for compute, and 100% availabilityguarantees for storage and network.Datapipe offers a simple, customer-friendly pricing scheme, with hourly and monthly options.The price includes fully managed services up to the application layer. Its prices are alsocompetitive when including managed services.Datapipe has shown increasing ability to win contracts from large MNCs, including those in Asia,due to its broad range of services and experience with managed hosting.

Cautions

Datapipe has a growing but still small presence in Asia/Pacific, which makes it difficult for it tomake a big impact on the market, given Asia's large geographical size.Datapipe's cloud data centers in China and Singapore are relatively new. The company needs toincrease its local service and support capabilities in these markets to become a strong regionalplayer.

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Dimension Data

Dimension Data, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Group in Japan, is a large global system integratorwith a strong regional presence in Asia. It has a long history in managed services, and is now branchinginto the cloud. Its target customers are enterprises, including MNCs and midmarket companies,government organizations and communications service providers (CSPs). It offers cloud-enabledhosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as relatedmanaged and IT services. It also supports colocation. It operates cloud data centers in Australia (two),Hong Kong, Japan, India and Indonesia.

Strengths

Dimension Data's cloud platform provides a single unified architecture for its public and privatecloud services, with a common CMP and API that supports self-service and automation for bothenvironments.All of Dimension Data's cloud data centers, including those jointly operated with local partners inIndonesia and India, are connected to its data centers in the U.S., Europe and South Africa toform a global cloud platform and offer a consistent unified service. Dimension Data has 11 clouddata centers worldwide.Dimension Data provides a good range of managed services, including tiered storage and globalbackup, security, application management and professional services for data center consolidationand cloud migration. The company is undergoing global certification for SAP cloud hosting andthe SAP Fast-Start Program in 4Q13. It also expects to achieve global certification for PCIcompliance in 2Q14.Dimension Data provides a good SLA, with 99.99% availability. It provides 24/7 support withinthe region via its global service centers in Melbourne (Australia), Bangalore (India) andSingapore. It also provides free load balancing and free WAN optimization between its cloud datacenters to enhance application performance.Dimension Data is price-competitive, offering a choice of hourly and monthly plans, and nocharge for servers in a nonrunning state. Pricing is also transparent, as in a typical public cloudservice. The company is also reasonably flexible with its commercial terms for enterprise deals.Dimension Data has a well-developed wholesale program, which will enable it to addressopportunities in more countries, particularly developing markets. Through its OneCloud Partner



Programme, it provides cloud platform, data center operations, sales and marketing enablementand revenue sharing. Dimension Data has partnerships with several CSPs, including BSNL(India), PT Indosat (Indonesia) and Hutchison Communications (Hong Kong).

Cautions

Dimension Data has limited experience of providing managed hosting in Asia. Until recently,most of its experience related to managed network services and building and operating privatedata centers for enterprises. It is now extending its skills to managed hosting services.Dimension Data has limited experience and professional capabilities to support large or complexenvironments with legacy IT. It is building a dedicated cloud consulting and professional servicesteam, drawing on skills from its traditional line of business.It is too early to tell whether Dimension Data's OneCloud Partner Programme will increase itsopportunities significantly, as its partners have little of the experience and brand recognitionneeded to support the IT requirements of enterprises and will depend on Dimension Data for mostof the delivery requirements.Dimension Data currently supports only VMware for virtualization, when most providers areincreasingly hypervisor-agnostic. However, it will be able to support Microsoft Hyper-V in 1Q14.Dimension Data lacks a cloud data center in Singapore, which is needed to complete its valueproposition for MNCs.

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Fujitsu

Fujitsu is a large global IT services provider and the largest in Asia, based largely on its dominance ofthe IT services market in Japan. Its target customers are enterprises and midmarket companies. It offerscloud-enabled managed hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer premisesoptions, as well as related managed and IT services. Its cloud data centers are in Japan, Singapore,Australia and Thailand.

Strengths

Fujitsu has a fairly good regional cloud data footprint, with presence in four markets. It cansupport MNCs in the regional hubs, except Hong Kong, as well as in Thailand, an importantlocation for manufacturers. It can also support hosted private clouds in China via a partner-owned,Fujitsu-operated data center in China.Fujitsu's multitenant service is based on its Fujitsu Cloud IaaS Trusted Public S5 service, while itshosted and private cloud service is based on its Fujitsu Cloud IaaS Private Hosted service. Fujitsuhas strong R&D capabilities and is investing in its own technology to build an integrated platformthat can support a full range of cloud services, including IaaS, platform as a service and SaaS.Fujitsu provides a full range of managed and IT services, and is well regarded for systemintegration, security and application management, which makes it suitable for supporting large orcomplex requirements.Fujitsu has introduced a common management portal for all its different cloud environments,although it still needs to improve its automation features. It also has an IT infrastructuremanagement service that can monitor a customer's entire IT infrastructure, including premises-based systems.Fujitsu has a track record in managed hosting, typically as part of a larger IT services or DCOcontract. Customers in Asia say it provides a good-quality service, with responsive service andsupport.Fujitsu offers competitive pricing, with a choice of hourly and monthly plans. Pricing is alsotransparent, as in a typical cloud service. Fujitsu is also reasonably flexible in its commercial terms



for enterprise deals.Fujitsu has a large base of existing customers, to which it can sell cloud services. It has a verylarge market share in Japan, and a good record of success with enterprises and governmentagencies in other markets.

Cautions

Fujitsu's Cloud IaaS Private Hosted service is inconsistent, the result of separate clouddevelopment efforts at regional level in the past. Although the service is VMware-based, otherhypervisors, such as Microsoft's Hyper-V, are supported in Japan. Fujitsu is standardizing itsproduct line, including managed services, for global consistency, but this work is still in progress.Fujitsu's market presence is uneven. It is overwhelmingly strong in Japan. Elsewhere, it is focusedon Australia, New Zealand and Singapore. It also has a tendency to target Japanese companieswith operations across the region, and to focus less on the international market.Fujitsu's operations in markets other than Japan and Australia tend to be product-centric. Thismeans they tend to lack the depth of managed services experience seen in the mature markets.

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HP

HP's Enterprise Services division is a large global IT services provider, with a long track record inmanaged services and outsourcing. Its target customers are enterprises, upper-midmarket companies andCSPs. It offers cloud-enabled managed hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customerpremises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It also offers colocation as part of itsservice portfolio. Its cloud data centers are in Japan, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand and India.

Strengths

HP has a fairly good regional cloud data center footprint, and plans to expand its coverage tomore markets. It can support MNCs in the regional hubs, except for Hong Kong. It is also one ofonly a few providers to have a presence in India, an important location for MNCs with back-endIT operations in that country.HP provides a full range of managed and IT services, including disaster recovery, databasemanagement, application management, and consulting and professional services, which makes itsuitable for supporting large or complex requirements.HP's multitenant platform now supports both VMware and Microsoft Hyper-V, and the companyplans to extend support to more hypervisors later. It also has strong security implementations, withrecent experience of handling a major government cloud project.HP has an extensive road map for product enhancements during the next two years, which is anindication of its commitment to the worldwide market.HP has a long track record in managed hosting, typically as part of a larger IT services or DCOcontract. Customers in Asia say it provides a high-quality service, with good service and support.HP has a large base of existing customers to which it can sell cloud services. It is making goodprogress in terms of penetrating the CSP segment, both as a customer and a channel. This willwiden its ability to address opportunities in the market.

Cautions

HP's standard SLA for IaaS availability is 99.9%, which is relatively low compared with some ofits competitors. However, it can offer up to 99.999% availability for customized configurations,similar to other major providers.HP's cloud platform is robust but generally undifferentiated, though new features on its product



road map will enhance the platform significantly.

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IBM

IBM is a large global IT services provider, with an extensive presence in Asia. It has a long track recordin IT outsourcing, including DCO and managed hosting. Its target customers are enterprises andgovernment organizations. It offers cloud-enabled managed hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It also offerscolocation services. Its cloud data centers in Australia and Japan support its SmartCloud Enterprise+(SCE+) product. It also has a data center in Singapore that supports SoftLayer, its newly acquiredhosting platform. It also provides cloud virtual server recovery services from its data centers in Australia,Japan, Singapore and India.

Strengths

IBM has a long track record in managed hosting, typically as part of a larger IT services or DCOcontract.IBM provides a full range of managed and IT services, including disaster recovery, databasemanagement and security services.IBM has a good understanding of the legacy environment, with strong applications and verticalmarket expertise, which gives it an advantage in large and complex environments.IBM is using its SCE+ cloud platform as the foundation for its e-business hosting andApplications on Demand business, which includes managed SAP and Oracle services.IBM's recent acquisition of SoftLayer Technologies, which has a cloud data center in Singapore,will give it a competitive platform for enterprises with e-business hosting requirements, as well asfor those that want the performance of "bare metal" services in a cloud consumption model.IBM has a large base of existing customers to which it can sell cloud services.

Cautions

IBM has a limited cloud data center footprint, compared with other large providers. It serves theregion from its cloud data centers in Australia, Japan and Singapore. To widen its ability toaddress opportunities in other markets, it plans to expand its footprint to Hong Kong, China andIndia in 2014.IBM's SCE+ is a standard global offering, but it is relatively new in Asia, where it has fewcustomers to validate its capabilities. It has more customers in North America and Europe, thesites of the first implementations. Its standard SLA for availability is 99.9%, which is relativelylow compared with its competitors. However, it can offer up to 99.999% availability forcustomized configurations, similar to other major providers.IBM's recently acquired SoftLayer platform is still offered as a stand-alone service, althoughcustomers have the option of purchasing managed services on top of this service. IBM isintegrating its legacy public cloud service with SoftLayer, a process scheduled for completion inearly 2014.IBM lacks a common CMP across the SCE+ and SoftLayer environments. This is underdevelopment, but when it will be available is unclear. IBM's strategy is to use OpenStack for theeventual integration.Customers say that IBM tends to steer them toward a private or hosted private cloud, even thoughit has a multitenant service. This is changing, however, and the change will accelerate in 2014 asIBM expands its cloud footprint and integrates its platforms with SoftLayer.

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IIJ

Internet Initiative Japan (IIJ) is a major Internet and network services provider as well as a leadingmanaged hosting provider in Japan. It was among the first to launch a public cloud service in Japan. Itstarget customers are enterprises and midmarket companies. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, includingmultitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. Italso offers colocation services.

Strengths

IIJ has over 10 years' experience providing managed hosting services in Japan for Web and e-business hosting. It also has strong system integration capabilities. This experience hasstrengthened its technical and operational skills for cloud-enabled hosting services. IIJ has a strongbase of customers, and is known for its good service quality.IIJ has good geographic coverage in Japan, with four cloud data centers. It is expanding itsinternational footprint, primarily to support its Japanese customers. It has set up cloud data centersin the U.S., U.K. and China. It is among the few providers that can provide cloud-enabled hostingin China, an important requirement for enterprises with extensive business in that country. It alsoplans to extend its footprint to Singapore by 1Q14.IIJ has developed its own cloud management software, with the ability to support a wide range ofhypervisors, including VMware vSphere and vCenter, Microsoft Hyper-V and open-source Xen.It has good security implementations. It also offers good SLAs, with 99.99% availability forvirtual machines.IIJ offers a good range of managed services, including storage management and securitymanagement. It also provides range of professional services, including cloud design,implementation, migration support and system integration with the cloud. It has a wide range ofcustomers from different industries.IIJ has deep in-house technical skills and frequently introduces new products and capabilities. Ithas developed a unified operations and management capability for hybrid cloud and ITenvironments. It has a software library with over 130 OSs, virtual appliances and middleware. Ithas also introduced a SAP-certified cloud service, as well as system infrastructure specifically forbig data analytical requirements.

Cautions

IIJ still competes largely in Japan. While it is expanding its footprint outside Japan, this expansionis in its early stages and driven mainly by Japan-based MNCs with international requirements.IIJ has strong technology, but is limited in its marketing. It is not well-known outside Japan. Italso needs to be more transparent about its service road map and enhancement plan, which willhelp customers gain a clear understanding of its services' value.IIJ is successful with midmarket companies. While it is gaining increasing acceptance from largeenterprises, it has limited experience of meeting complex mission-critical requirements.

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NTT Communications

NTT Communications, a wholly owned subsidiary of NTT Group in Japan, is a global CSP with astrong presence in Asia. It is also a leading hosting services provider, with an extensive data centerfootprint. It is expanding aggressively into cloud-enabled managed hosting services, targeting bothMNCs and Asian enterprises. Its service, named Enterprise Cloud, offers multitenant, single-tenant andcustomer premises options, as well as related managed services. It also supports colocation. Its clouddata centers are located in Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore, Australia, Malaysia and Thailand.



Strengths

NTT Communications provides the best geographical coverage in Asia. It is the only providerwith presence in all four regional hubs, and it also has presence in the secondary markets. It willexpand its coverage to China and India in 2014. In India, it will provide services via NetMagic,an Indian data center operator that it has acquired. NTT Communications' footprint positions itwell to support MNCs, as well as Asian enterprises with domestic requirements.All of NTT Communications' cloud data centers in Asia are connected to its cloud data centers inthe U.S. and the U.K. to form a global cloud platform and offer a consistent, unified service.Customers can provision and manage their cloud resources across its global cloud infrastructure.NTT Communications has a common cloud management portal for hybrid clouds, includingthird-party cloud services such as Microsoft Azure. The portal provides service automation andintegrated management capabilities.NTT Communications offers good SLAs, with 99.99% monthly availability. This is guaranteedon an individual component basis, including server, storage, virtual firewall and virtual loadbalancer.NTT Communications provides a broad range of managed and IT services, including databasemanagement, disaster recovery, network device management and cloud migration. Applicationperformance management is also available from a group company.NTT Communications has strong security capabilities. It has integrated Integralis and Secode, itsacquired security companies, with NTT's security unit to form a single security entity. This entityprovides consulting and professional services, as well as managed security, which are importantfor enterprises. However, security is a separate service that needs to be added to the hostingcontract.NTT Communications is strong in product innovation and has launched a wide range of newenhancements in 2013, including high-performance storage, Oracle database clustering and aSAP-certified service. It has also launched an automated IT infrastructure management servicethat can span a customer's entire IT infrastructure, including premises-based systems.NTT Communications offers price and billing flexibility. It offers a choice of per-minute andmonthly pricing. It sells based on a per-resource pool and per virtual machine. It provides freeMultiprotocol Label Switching and Internet connectivity. Its prices are fairly competitive. Itprovides billing in eight currencies: yen, U.S. dollar, euro, Singapore dollar, Hong Kong dollar,Australian dollar, Thai baht and Malaysian ringgit. It also provides guaranteed uncontendedutilization, with free bursting of up to 25%.

Cautions

NTT Communications' Enterprise Cloud service is relatively new. It also has limited experiencewith managed hosting; its experience largely relates to colocation, dedicated hosting and Webhosting.Although NTT Communications has extended its cloud platform to many markets, its managedservices capabilities in most markets are immature. It needs to build up its consulting andprofessional services, technical service and support, and sales capabilities in locations where itsservice is available.NTT Communications' capabilities are not well-known outside Japan, although its business isgrowing and it has the ability to win some large and complex projects.

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Orange Business Services

Orange Business Services is a global CSP with extensive presence in Asia/Pacific. It targets MNCs andenterprises. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer



premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It provides colocation as part of itsmanaged service portfolio. Its cloud data centers are located in Australia, Singapore and, since 4Q13,Hong Kong.

Strengths

Orange was among the earliest CSPs to provide data center consolidation, virtualization andmanaged services in Asia. It has gained significant experience, which it is now using to extendinto cloud services.Orange has a regional footprint, which gives it the ability to support MNCs with regionalrequirements through its data centers in Singapore, Hong Kong and Australia. These data centersare connected to its data centers in Europe and the U.S. to form a global cloud platform.Orange has a comprehensive catalog of services, which gives it the flexibility to customizeindividual solutions for customers. It has a sizable consulting and professional services team,supported by well-defined methodologies and processes, to support customers with cloudmigration.Orange provides a good range of managed services, including storage and backup, OS andmiddleware management, and application performance management. It also offers cloud-communications services as an additional differentiator.Orange provides end-to-end service management, including support for quality of service andSLAs for networks, IaaS, OSs and applications. It also provides a choice of centralized billing orlocal billing in various currencies.

Cautions

Orange's cloud infrastructure is relatively new in Asia. Until recently, Orange's experience waslargely limited to data center consolidation and virtualization and managed services for a smallnumber of customers.Orange's has limited experience and professional services capabilities for supporting complexenterprise applications, but it has partnerships with strong IT services providers to deliver acomplete solution.Orange has won contracts from both MNCs and large domestic enterprises in Asia. However,Orange as a company focuses strongly on the global MNC segment for its core network andcommunications services. It is unclear whether Orange's head office wants to fully address localopportunities as part of its overall business strategy.

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Rackspace

Rackspace is a U.S.-headquartered hosting provider with a long track record of leadership in themanaged hosting market in the U.S. and Europe. It has offered managed hosting services from its HongKong data center since 2008, including support for U.S. companies with hosting requirements in Asia. Itis now expanding its presence in Asia, and it is at an early stage of execution. It targets enterprises,including MNCs. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with multitenant, single-tenant and customer premisesoptions, as well as related managed services. It provides colocation as part of its managed hostingservices portfolio. Its cloud data centers are located in Hong Kong, Australia, the U.S. and Europe.

Strengths

Rackspace has a good understanding of enterprises' essential requirements, and has developed aproduct and service strategy focused on a reliable platform, good service and support, andcompetitive prices.



Rackspace has a strong cultural focus on providing superior, high-touch service, an approachvalidated by its large base of customers in the U.S.Rackspace is a cofounder of OpenStack, which it is championing as an open CMP. Thisresonates with enterprises looking to avoid lock-in and achieve better interoperability in the longterm. While the OpenStack platform has performed well for Rackspace in its first year inproduction, whether it can achieve a position as a leading CMP remains to be seen.Rackspace is very price-competitive. Its prices are lower than most of its competitors, largely dueto its focus on open source, standardization and a narrower product portfolio.Rackspace has an adequate range of managed services, with good security implementations.

Cautions

Rackspace's presence in Asia is very small, due to a past lack of a clear strategy for Asia, whichinhibited its investments in infrastructure and people. Consequently, it has a low mind share in theregion, which limits its growth. It has increased its investments in the region significantly in thepast year, but it will take time to close the gap with its competitors.Rackspace's cloud services in Hong Kong and Australia are new, having been launched in 2013.It also lacks presence in Singapore, an important regional hub for MNCs.Early feedback from Rackspace's customers in Asia indicates that its overall service quality isgood, although not comparable to user experiences in the U.S. Rackspace has a small localsupport team in Asia, which is backed up after office hours by support teams in the U.S. andEurope using a "follow the sun" support model.Rackspace lacks a professional services team in Asia, which limits its ability to support large orcomplex requirements. Consequently, its customers tend to be midmarket companies with simplerhosting requirements.

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Savvis

Savvis, a CenturyLink company that will be renamed CenturyLink Technology Solutions in January2014, is a U.S.-based managed hosting provider with a long track record of leadership in the managedhosting market in the U.S. Its target customers are enterprises, including MNCs. It offers cloud-enabledhosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and customer premises options, as well as relatedmanaged and IT services. It also offers colocation services. It operates cloud data centers in Singapore,India, Japan and Hong Kong.

Strengths

Savvis was one of the earliest U.S.-based hosting providers to establish a presence in Asia and ithas several years' experience of offering managed hosting in this region.Savvis has a good regional cloud data footprint, with presence in three regional hubs and in India,an important location for MNCs with back-end IT operations in that country.Savvis offers a broad range of managed and related IT services, including database management,security management, and consulting and professional services for large or complex requirements.Savvis has a good understanding of security, with strong security implementations, governanceand certifications, as part of its strategy to target the banking and finance sector, as well asenterprises.Savvis has an established customer support center in Singapore, backed up by another inBangalore, India. These are part of a global network of support centers.Savvis supports a wide range of currencies for billing purposes, which gives it more flexibility toaddress local opportunities.



Cautions

Savvis has limited market traction in Asia, even though it was an early market entrant. This is dueto its history of focusing on both network and hosting services, and being overshadowed by largeplayers in both segments.Savvis's regional organization, while larger than those of its U.S. peers, lacks operating maturitydue to frequent turnover of staff in the past few years, which weakens its ability to compete in themarket. It has stepped up investments in managers and skilled IT personnel to support its growthstrategy.Savvis does not offer premises-based services, which are important for many enterprises.Savvis has multiple cloud IaaS offerings, which can leave customers unsure which service bestsuits their needs. Customers also say that its cloud management portal is relatively difficult to use.

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Sify

Sify is a major managed hosting and network services provider in India. It targets enterprises andmidmarket companies. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant andcustomer premises options, as well as related managed services. It also offers a public cloud service andcolocation. Its cloud data centers are located in Mumbai and Bangalore, India.

Strengths

Sify has an extensive data center footprint in India, which puts in a strong position to offer cloud-enabled hosting services.Sify offers a comprehensive range of managed and related IT services, including disasterrecovery, security, database management and application server management.Sify has strong software development skills and invests significantly in R&D. It developed itsown CMP using technologies from multiple vendors and open-source technologies, with theobjective of being hypervisor-neutral. It supports VMware for public clouds, and VMware,Microsoft Hyper-V and Xen for private clouds, with full automation and management across bothkinds of environment.Sify has a well-designed cloud management portal, which is easy to use and offers a good choiceof features.Sify provides end-to-end service management, with SLAs for cloud platform, networkinfrastructure and applications.Sify offers a flexible pricing scheme, with a choice of hourly and monthly rates. Each servicecomponent is priced at the most granular level. Prices are also transparent, as in a typical publiccloud service, with volume discounts for enterprise deals.

Cautions

Sify is an India-only player as it lacks infrastructure and presence outside its home market. Thislimits its ability to address opportunities that are emerging in other markets in Asia.Sify's ability to continue investing in its cloud business might be limited by its previous weakfinancial performance. However, it has returned to profitability in the past two quarters. If it canremain profitable, this uncertainty will diminish.Sify's service is relatively new. Customers say that Sify's overall service quality is good, but that itneeds to improve its provisioning and monitoring process and its billing.

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SingTel

SingTel is the leading CSP in Singapore. It is an early provider of public and managed cloud services inits home market, where it has experience of supporting a large cross-section of customers. It is a strongplayer in Singapore and is now expanding its service in Asia/Pacific, particularly in Australia where ithas a strong presence through SingTel Optus. Its target customers are enterprises, MNCs andgovernment organizations. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenantand customer premises options, as well as related managed and IT services. It also offers a public cloudservice and colocation. It operates cloud data centers in Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong.

Strengths

SingTel can serve enterprises in Singapore and Australia, where it has a strong presence, as wellas MNCs with regional requirements through its cloud data centers in Singapore, Australia, andHong Kong.SingTel offers the full range of cloud-enabled hosting services. It is also a major provider ofcolocation services, which augment its managed hosting capabilities.SingTel has a broad portfolio of managed and IT services, including database management,security, and consulting and professional services.SingTel has a large IT services arm in Singapore and Australia, which has long experience in ITservices, including managed hosting. This will enable SingTel to handle large and complexenvironments.SingTel has strong experience in the government sector in Singapore. It recently completed awhole-of-government community cloud, which it operates as a service, for the Singaporeangovernment.SingTel has a strong enterprise brand in Singapore and is using its core network andcommunications services to differentiate itself from non-network players. It has integrated its ITand network operations into a single delivery organization to provide end-to-end servicemanagement.

Cautions

SingTel's cloud platform in Hong Kong is new and small. SingTel needs to increase its localservice and support capabilities in this market to become a strong regional player.SingTel's cloud-enabled managed hosting service and public cloud service are based on differentplatforms. It rolled out a new platform in 4Q13, which integrated both platforms with a commoncloud management portal.For virtualization, SingTel currently supports only VMware, while competing providers areincreasingly hypervisor-neutral.

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Telstra

Telstra is the leading CSP in Australia. It is an early managed cloud service provider in its home marketand has won a significant number of large customers. It has established itself as a strong player inAustralia, and is now expanding its presence in Asia, the U.K. and the U.S. Its target customers inAustralia are enterprises, government organizations and midmarket companies. Outside Australia, it istargeting MNCs. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with a choice of multitenant, single-tenant and bare-metal options, as well as related managed services. It also offers colocation services. It operates twocloud data centers in Australia. It also launched cloud data centers in Singapore, Hong Kong and theU.K. in 4Q13. They are connected to its network to form an international cloud platform.



Strengths

Telstra has a strong base in Australia, and can now support MNCs with regional requirementsthrough its cloud data centers in Singapore and Hong Kong. Its cloud data center in the U.K. alsoserves as a gateway for U.K. companies with hosting requirements in Asia.Telstra has a small but good portfolio of key managed services, including security, backup anddisaster recovery management. It also offers PCI compliance services for e-commerce.Telstra has built a small but good cloud consulting and professional services practice over the pastfew years, and can handle large cloud migration projects. Customers say that it provides goodservice quality.Telstra provides end-to-end service management, with SLAs for cloud platform, networkinfrastructure and applications.Telstra focuses on providing a good customer experience, a very user-friendly cloud customerportal and a globally consistent product.Telstra provides a choice of hourly and monthly pricing, and supports pricing and billing inmultiple currencies outside Australia.Telstra has a strong enterprise brand in Australia and is using its core network andcommunications services to provide differentiation against non-network players. It also has astrategic partnership with Accenture to deliver a complete solution for complex requirements.

Cautions

Telstra's cloud platform in Singapore and Hong Kong are new. It needs to increase its localservice and support capabilities in these markets to be a strong regional player.Telstra lacks a public cloud service, an important requirement for enterprises with Web-hostingand e-commerce needs.Telstra supports a limited range of hypervisors and applications due to its strong alignment with afew key vendors.

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Verizon

Verizon, a leading CSP in the U.S., offers cloud-enabled managed hosting services through VerizonTerremark, its hosting and cloud business unit. It is a strong managed hosting provider in the U.S. andEurope. Its target customers are MNCs. It offers cloud-enabled hosting, with virtual and dedicatedservers over a multitenant infrastructure, a customer premises option and related managed services. Italso offers colocation services. Its cloud data center is in Hong Kong and is connected via its network toits data centers in the U.S. and the U.K. to form a global cloud platform.

Strengths

Verizon has strong technology skills and managed hosting experience in its home market of theU.S. and in Europe. It also has an existing colocation and managed hosting business in Asia.These combined attributes will provide the foundation for its expansion into Asia.Verizon has long experience of operating an enterprise-class VMware-virtualized cloud platform,with good redundancy, security and automation capabilities. It also offers a choice of virtual anddedicated servers.Verizon is a global network services provider with a strong presence in Asia. It is using itsregional sales, professional services, and service and support capabilities to grow its cloud hostingservice in the region.Verizon has a strong security practice, which is a key differentiator for supporting large andcomplex cloud migration projects.



Verizon has shown an ability to win contracts from MNCs, including those in Asia, despite itslimited cloud data center coverage.Verizon places a strong focus on research and development to drive innovation and cost savings,and has the potential to be competitive in the public cloud sector.

Cautions

Verizon has been offering colocation and managed hosting services in Asia for many years, butits business remains small. Managed hosting is now a key product for Verizon, especially after itsacquisition of Terremark.Verizon's cloud data center coverage is limited to Hong Kong. This is not sufficient for MNCs,which typically need at least two regional locations, the other being Singapore. It plans to extendits footprint in Asia in 2014, although it has not picked the locations.Verizon has rolled out only part of its broad product portfolio in Asia. It does not offer a hostedprivate cloud service, although such services are important for customers that do not want amultitenant environment. As an alternative, it offers a premises-based private cloud service.Verizon currently supports only VMware for virtualization, when most providers are increasinglyhypervisor-neutral.

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Vendors Added and Dropped

We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants and MarketScopes as markets change.As a result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant or MarketScope maychange over time. A vendor's appearance in a Magic Quadrant or MarketScope one year and not thenext does not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor. It may be areflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or of a change of focusby that vendor.

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Added

None, as this is a new Magic Quadrant.

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Dropped

None, as this is a new Magic Quadrant.

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Inclusion and Exclusion CriteriaTo be considered for this Magic Quadrant, each service provider had to meet the following criteria, as ofJune 2013:

Products and services: The provider must offer a cloud-enabled managed hosting service thatmeets Gartner's market definition. It must offer this service as a multitenant offering in its owndata center, and may optionally offer single-tenant or customer premises options.Technical and business capabilities in Asia/Pacific. The provider must operate a CESI platform



in one or several major markets in Asia/Pacific, with associated technical support, managed andprofessional services, and sales capabilities in the region.Market traction and momentum. As the market is evolving rapidly and has many players, weinclude only a select number of early market movers, innovative providers and potential marketmakers for this Magic Quadrant. To be included, a provider needs to be a major player in a keymarket or offer services in multiple markets, supported by CESI and associated capabilities in theregion.

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Evaluation Criteria

Ability to Execute

This Magic Quadrant is aimed at businesses operating in Asia/Pacific, including MNCs with regionalhosting requirements and Asia/Pacific businesses with domestic hosting requirements. As Asia/Pacific isa large region with 13 major markets, providers need to demonstrate that they can address multiplemarkets within the region with the support of a competitive cloud platform and associated capabilities.

We gave high weightings to two criteria: Market Responsiveness/Record, which includes a provider'shistory and ability to respond to market needs and opportunities in the region; and Product or Service,which includes a provider's cloud platform, range of services, managed and professional services, andservice availability in all key markets.

Table 1. Ability to Execute EvaluationCriteria

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Product or Service High

Overall Viability Medium

Sales Execution/Pricing Medium

Market Responsiveness/Record High

Marketing Execution Medium

Customer Experience Medium

Operations Medium




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Completeness of Vision

This Magic Quadrant is aimed at businesses operating in Asia/Pacific, including MNCs with regionalhosting requirements and Asia/Pacific businesses with domestic hosting requirements. Due to theregion's large size and fragmented geography, providers need a strong market understanding of theirtarget segments, as this will determine their geographic focus, supported by a competitive cloud platformand associated capabilities.

Ideally, a leading provider should provide services in all 13 major markets within Asia/Pacific.However, we recognized that this is not yet feasible due to the tremendous amount of resources requiredto address all these markets at a local level. As a result, we looked for providers that can supportmultiple markets today, and have the potential to become fuller regional providers in the future.

Table 2. Completeness of VisionEvaluation Criteria

Evaluation Criteria Weighting

Market Understanding High

Marketing Strategy Medium

Sales Strategy Medium

Offering (Product) Strategy High

Business Model Medium

Vertical/Industry Strategy Low

Innovation Medium

Geographic Strategy High


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Quadrant Descriptions

It is important to note that the most appropriate provider for an enterprise's particular situation couldappear in any of the four quadrants. For example, if a Niche Player's capabilities match an enterprise'sspecific needs, it may be the best choice.



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Leaders

Providers require a strong strategy to become a Leader in Asia/Pacific. They need to focus on investingin their products and geographic coverage, to the extent that they can become strong regional players.To build their market positions, they must have the ability and willingness to invest for the future.

There are no Leaders in this Magic Quadrant because all the providers are still in early stages ofexecution and have not made enough progress with their offerings or geographic coverage to be placedin the Leaders quadrant.

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Challengers

Challengers typically have a strong Ability to Execute, but trail the market in terms of geographiccoverage or product evolution. They have experience in traditional managed hosting services, but theyhave not exploited technology and market demand to build highly competitive cloud-enabled managedhosting services. They could become Leaders if they extend their vision and strategy, but they couldalso fall quickly behind in this fast-moving market if they focus only on the short term.

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Visionaries

Visionaries are typically early movers with an innovative or disruptive approach to the market. But theyhave limited geographic coverage, or services that are new and unproven. They may becomeChallengers or Leaders if they can execute strongly on their vision and the market accepts their services.

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Niche Players

Niche Players typically perform well in a particular segment of the market, but have limited ability tooutperform other providers in the region as a whole. Their focus on a particular segment or geographylimits their ability to address the broader market. They tend to be relatively unknown outside their targetmarket.

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ContextThis Magic Quadrant focuses on cloud-enabled managed hosting services for businesses in Asia/Pacific.These are standardized products that combine CESI with managed services. This Magic Quadrantfocuses on services for the following types of business:

Western MNCs operating in Asia, which typically host their IT infrastructure in at least tworegional locations.Asian businesses, including government and midmarket companies, whose operations andrequirements are typically domestic (see the Market Definition/Description section).

This is the first Magic Quadrant on cloud-enabled managed hosting in Asia/Pacific. It is a development



from the Magic Quadrants for managed hosting in North America and Europe, both of which willbecome Magic Quadrants for cloud-enabled managed hosting in 2014. Each Magic Quadrant will focuson one region's specific needs, and together they will provide a complete view of the major markets.

Traditional hosting services such as colocation and dedicated server offerings will continue to beconsidered by providers for the purpose of delivering a complete hybrid hosting solution, led by a cloud-enabled hosting platform. But they will be de-emphasized as most providers are migrating to cloudplatforms to remain relevant and competitive.

The biggest challenge facing providers in Asia/Pacific is how to offer services across such a large andfragmented geographic area, one in which there are also major variations in IT maturity betweencountries. As such, a key part of our assessment focused on the geographic availability of services, withemphasis on those that support multiple markets across the region (see the Evaluation Criteria section).

It is important to understand the relationship and distinctions between the Magic Quadrants on cloud-enabled managed hosting and those on DCO and infrastructure utility services (for which see "MagicQuadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Infrastructure Utility Services, North America," "MagicQuadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Infrastructure Utility Services, Europe" and "MagicQuadrant for Data Center Outsourcing and Infrastructure Utility Services, Asia/Pacific"). The keydistinctions are that:

Cloud-enabled managed hosting offerings focus on standardized and productized services.Managed services are provided up to the hypervisor and OS level, with little or no customization.DCO and infrastructure utility service offerings provide managed services up the system level,with customization for complex application requirements. Management of the overall serviceoperation is central to these offerings.

Both types of service can be built on top of a CESI platform, on top of physical nonvirtualizedhardware, or on top of virtualized infrastructure without self-service. The use of a CESI does not changethe fundamental nature of these services; it only cloud-enables them (see "Technology Overview forCloud-Enabled System Infrastructure").

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Market OverviewAsia/Pacific does not have a long history with managed hosting. Most IT infrastructure in this region islocated on the customers' premises or colocated with a hosting provider. Management is typically donein-house. Managed hosting services, where deployed, are typically part of a bigger IT services oroutsourcing contract. This market is led by established IT services providers and managed servicesproviders.

However, the market is changing rapidly. The arrival of cloud IaaS, coinciding with the trend for datacenter consolidation and virtualization, has attracted many players. They have typically focused oncloud-enabled managed hosting for enterprises, rather than public cloud services. With wider and easieravailability of services, adoption is growing rapidly in Asia/Pacific, albeit from a low base.

Adoption is led by developed markets such as Japan, Australia, Singapore and Hong Kong, but it is alsoemerging in developing markets, particularly India where there is a growing choice of strong localproviders. Initial adoption is led by midmarket companies, but it is now extending to enterprises andgovernment organizations as well. Early use cases focus on general business applications and Webhosting, but are beginning to extend to enterprise applications and e-business hosting.

For aspiring regional providers, the biggest challenge is posed by Asia/Pacific's geography. It is large



region with a fragmented market and considerable diversity in terms of economic development and ITmaturity. It is difficult for even large or strong providers to address all the country markets at once.Consequently, they focus on small number of markets, typically in the regional hubs of Singapore,Hong Kong, Japan and Australia, and expand progressively to other markets over time. This leaves alarge part of the region underserved.

There is a wide range of players, including cloud and managed hosting providers (mostly from theU.S.), established IT services providers, and global and regional CSPs. In general, cloud and managedhosting providers have more mature cloud platforms, lead in technical innovation, and have bettermanaged services capabilities, but they tend to lack strong regional presence. Established IT servicesproviders have more managed hosting experience, typically as part of larger IT services or DCO deals,and deep presence in some country markets. CSPs lead in network and hosting services, typicallyoffering end-to-end service management, including network, cloud infrastructure and applicationperformance; they have strong presence in their home markets and can support MNCs with regionalhosting requirements.

The cloud-enabled managed hosting market in Asia/Pacific is growing and evolving rapidly. We expectit to mature at an accelerated pace, compared with other typical technology markets. As such, webelieve this is the right time to introduce this Magic Quadrant.

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Purpose of Magic Quadrant

The aim of this Magic Quadrant is to help enterprises migrating to cloud-enabled hosting services byestablishing which providers are best placed to serve the needs of Asia/Pacific's broad market. Weevaluated a select number that focus on the region's developed markets, particularly the key regionalhubs. We also considered providers from India, as this country serves as the IT back-end for manyMNCs. Additionally, we looked at providers in China, as there is a growing need for MNCs to host inthis country as business expands there. However, China's service provider market is immature, partlydue to regulatory barriers that hinder foreign providers from entering. As a result, we did not include anyin this Magic Quadrant.

We gave higher weightings to providers that:

Serve multiple country markets, including the regional hubs to meet the requirements of MNCs.Offer cloud-enabled hosting that is competitive in terms of range of services, cloud platform,service features, managed services, consulting and professional services, and local service andsupport.Have a track record in managed hosting — we take experience in managed hosting in this regionas a proxy, since cloud-enabled hosting is an extension of traditional managed hosting.

As this market is in its early stages of development, most providers lack a clear strategy to addressenterprises' requirements in Asia/Pacific. Most are in the early stages of execution in terms of their cloudplatform development, geographic coverage and experience of supporting enterprises. For these reasons,we have kept the level of Completeness of Vision and Ability to Execute low, to reflect the current stateof development. As the market progresses, we will raise the levels to reflect this progress.

We expect the market to evolve greatly during the next few years. Enterprises should select the providerthat best matches their needs in the near term and keep to shorter contracts. This will give enterprises theopportunity to select another provider as the market matures.

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Evaluation Criteria Definitions

Ability to Execute

Product/Service: Core goods and services offered by the vendor for the defined market. This includescurrent product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets, skills and so on, whether offered natively orthrough OEM agreements/partnerships as defined in the market definition and detailed in the subcriteria.

Overall Viability: Viability includes an assessment of the overall organization's financial health, thefinancial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood that the individual business unitwill continue investing in the product, will continue offering the product and will advance the state ofthe art within the organization's portfolio of products.

Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor's capabilities in all presales activities and the structure thatsupports them. This includes deal management, pricing and negotiation, presales support, and the overalleffectiveness of the sales channel.

Market Responsiveness/Record: Ability to respond, change direction, be flexible and achievecompetitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve and marketdynamics change. This criterion also considers the vendor's history of responsiveness.

Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver theorganization's message to influence the market, promote the brand and business, increase awareness ofthe products, and establish a positive identification with the product/brand and organization in the mindsof buyers. This "mind share" can be driven by a combination of publicity, promotional initiatives,thought leadership, word of mouth and sales activities.

Customer Experience: Relationships, products and services/programs that enable clients to besuccessful with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways customers receive technicalsupport or account support. This can also include ancillary tools, customer support programs (and thequality thereof), availability of user groups, service-level agreements and so on.

Operations: The ability of the organization to meet its goals and commitments. Factors include thequality of the organizational structure, including skills, experiences, programs, systems and othervehicles that enable the organization to operate effectively and efficiently on an ongoing basis.

Completeness of Vision

Market Understanding: Ability of the vendor to understand buyers' wants and needs and to translatethose into products and services. Vendors that show the highest degree of vision listen to and understandbuyers' wants and needs, and can shape or enhance those with their added vision.

Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set of messages consistently communicated throughout theorganization and externalized through the website, advertising, customer programs and positioningstatements.

Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling products that uses the appropriate network of direct and indirectsales, marketing, service, and communication affiliates that extend the scope and depth of market reach,skills, expertise, technologies, services and the customer base.

Offering (Product) Strategy: The vendor's approach to product development and delivery thatemphasizes differentiation, functionality, methodology and feature sets as they map to current and futurerequirements.



Business Model: The soundness and logic of the vendor's underlying business proposition.

Vertical/Industry Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet thespecific needs of individual market segments, including vertical markets.

Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital forinvestment, consolidation, defensive or pre-emptive purposes.

Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specificneeds of geographies outside the "home" or native geography, either directly or through partners,channels and subsidiaries as appropriate for that geography and market.

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