Enterprises in Germany are embracing public cloud services to enable remote workforces during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a new report published today by Information Services Group (ISG) (Nasdaq: III), a leading global technology research and advisory firm.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Public Cloud – Services & Solutions Report for Germany finds empowering a cloud-based remote workforce is the top use case for the public cloud in Germany. In addition, enterprises are looking for cloud service providers that can help them manage multiple public clouds and have strong partnerships with public cloud providers. German enterprises also want cloud partners that deliver innovative services and create additional value from the cloud.

In response, cloud service providers are developing industry-specific transformation capabilities and using accelerators to move client workloads to the cloud and address industry requirements, the report says.

Meanwhile, a skills shortage is hitting a number of public cloud service providers in Germany, the report says. Cloud hyperscalers have expanded their online training programs to increase the number of skilled engineers and cloud architects that are required to support market growth, but providers still report shortages.

Some providers are addressing the skills shortage by focusing on automation, allowing them to support a large number of clients without adding to their workforces, the report says. Many providers are offering AI operations, or AIOps, to automate cloud operations.

“Leveraging automation gives clients a better user experience and enables service providers to improve profit margins,” said Andrea Spiegelhoff, partner, ISG EMEA, in Germany. “Public cloud clients want self-service infrastructure to assist their fast-moving development teams.”

To bolster their cloud operations capabilities, managed services providers are developing cloud management platforms and using DevOps and infrastructure-as-code practices, along with AI-based automation and self-healing capabilities, to integrate multiple clouds in complex operating environments.

The report also sees a growing focus on management of cloud spending in Germany, with financial operations, or FinOps, services in greater demand. Some providers offer dashboards to track cloud costs, but more integration is needed for clients using multiple clouds.

The use of multiple clouds is the standard setup in Germany, with most service providers supporting multiple hyperscalers, the report adds. The market is moving from infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) to platform-as-a-service (PaaS), where clients choose the cloud to match services to their business technologies.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Public Cloud – Services & Solutions Report for Germany evaluates the capabilities of 94 providers across seven quadrants: Consulting and Transformational Services for Large Accounts, Consulting and Transformational Services for the Midmarket, Managed Public Cloud Services for Large Accounts, Managed Public Cloud Services for the Midmarket, Hyperscale Infrastructure and Platform Services, SAP HANA Infrastructure Services, and Secure Enterprise Filesharing Services.

The report names T-Systems as a Leader in four quadrants and CANCOM and Microsoft as Leaders in three. Accenture, Arvato Systems, Atos, AWS, Capgemini, Claranet, Deutsche Telekom, Google, IBM, NTT DATA and Wipro are named Leaders in two quadrants. All for One Group, Axians, Box, Brainloop, BTC, Computacenter, doubleSlash, DRACOON, Dropbox, Infosys, IONOS Cloud, PlusServer, Rackspace Technology, Reply, Skaylink and TCS are named Leaders in one quadrant.

In addition, Cloudreach, gridscale, Nextcloud, Nordcloud, Sopra Steria and Syntax were named Rising Stars—companies with “promising portfolios” and “high future potential” by ISG’s definition—in one quadrant each.

Customized versions of the report are available from AWS, DRACOON, gridscale, IONOS Cloud and PlusServer.

The 2021 ISG Provider Lens™ Public Cloud – Services & Solutions Report for Germany is available to subscribers or for one-time purchase on this webpage.

About ISG Provider Lens™ Research

The ISG Provider Lens™ Quadrant research series is the only service provider evaluation of its kind to combine empirical, data-driven research and market analysis with the real-world experience and observations of ISG's global advisory team. Enterprises will find a wealth of detailed data and market analysis to help guide their selection of appropriate sourcing partners, while ISG advisors use the reports to validate their own market knowledge and make recommendations to ISG's enterprise clients. The research currently covers providers offering their services globally, across Europe, as well as in the U.S., Germany, Switzerland, the U.K., France, the Nordics, Brazil and Australia/New Zealand, with additional markets to be added in the future. For more information about ISG Provider Lens research, please visit this webpage.

A companion research series, the ISG Provider Lens Archetype reports, offer a first-of-its-kind evaluation of providers from the perspective of specific buyer types.

About ISG

ISG (Information Services Group) (Nasdaq: III) is a leading global technology research and advisory firm. A trusted business partner to more than 700 clients, including more than 75 of the world’s top 100 enterprises, ISG is committed to helping corporations, public sector organizations, and service and technology providers achieve operational excellence and faster growth. The firm specializes in digital transformation services, including automation, cloud and data analytics; sourcing advisory; managed governance and risk services; network carrier services; strategy and operations design; change management; market intelligence and technology research and analysis. Founded in 2006, and based in Stamford, Conn., ISG employs more than 1,300 digital-ready professionals operating in more than 20 countries—a global team known for its innovative thinking, market influence, deep industry and technology expertise, and world-class research and analytical capabilities based on the industry’s most comprehensive marketplace data. For more information, visit www.isg-one.com.