Who wins the next enterprise cloud dollar?

Qualitate’s research, published ahead of earnings, examines which providers buyers are considering, why they stay, and what could make them switch.

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Google is getting onto more shortlists

Google captured 12.1% of cloud services evaluations in our latest study, up 3.2 percentage points versus 1H ’26 and ahead of Amazon and Microsoft.

Buyers point to AI capabilities, pricing and familiarity with Google’s tools as reasons to consider the platform. Growing interest gives Google more opportunities to win business, although evaluations don’t guarantee purchases.

“We’re evaluating Google given that the token cost seems to be more efficient.”

Managing Director, Professional services firm, UK

Microsoft’s existing relationships matter

Microsoft had the highest conversion rate of the three hyperscalers, 93%: nearly every buyer who made a decision on Azure chose it. Planned churn was just 1%.

Buyers describe how existing applications, identity management, and security tools make Azure difficult to replace. Microsoft attracts fewer evaluations relative to its installed base, but those existing relationships remain a strong advantage.

“The flip side is, the more dependent you become on Azure native services, the more difficult it is to migrate away.”

VP and CISO, Mid-size financial services firm, US

AWS customers are pushing back on price

Amazon’s cost-effectiveness rating fell 19 percentage points to 61%. Buyers describe optimization efforts and, in some cases, redirecting spending toward cheaper alternatives.

Yet planned churn is still low at 3%, below the category average of about 4%. The question is whether pricing pressure changes where customers place their next workload, even when they continue using AWS.

“There’s really no complaint about Amazon except that their prices keep going up.”

CISO, Large IT and telecom enterprise, Australia

What will buyers choose next?

We’re watching whether Google converts growing interest into more wins, Microsoft keeps expanding within existing customers, and AWS pricing concerns shift incremental spending elsewhere.

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About the research

Source: Qualitate’s IT Infrastructure & DevOps 2H ’26 study, compared with 1H ’26. Findings reflect interviews with mid-market and enterprise technology buyers. Spending and churn measures refer to next-12-month plans, not realized results. This panel doesn’t precisely weigh the outsized spend from its largest cloud customers, including frontier AI labs.

The 2H ’26 cloud services study includes newly surveyed AI infrastructure/GPU cloud and serverless markets. Cost-effectiveness measures the share of cost-related feedback that was positive.