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Another quarter, another period of dominance for Amazon Web Services (AWS) in public cloud IaaS – according to the latest analysis from Synergy Research.

The figures tell a similar story from previous quarters; the market leaders are growing faster than the rest of the market, but while Microsoft and Google are growing faster than AWS, the Seattle-based giant still holds 45% of the worldwide public IaaS space, dwarfing Microsoft, Google, and IBM’s shares put together.

When it comes to public platform as a service (PaaS), AWS is still the market leader, although the three nearest challengers – Salesforce, Microsoft and IBM – hold slightly more share combined this time. For managed private cloud, however, IBM leads the way with almost 20% global market share, ahead of AWS, Rackspace, and NTT.

The latest figures may show more than ever an entrenched space with the winners and runners up decided.

Yet Synergy argues that in some cases, second tier companies are attempting to buck the trend; Chinese giant Alibaba, in IaaS, and Oracle in PaaS.

Speaking to this publication in July, when Oracle confirmed it was to acquire cloud ERP software provider NetSuite for $9.3 billion, Synergy chief analyst John Dinsdale noted that while the deal would not ‘directly’ help Oracle in the PaaS market, it distinctly remained a top 10 player.

Here, though, the findings are clear. “Amazon, Microsoft and Google continue to invest huge amounts in their hyperscale data centre infrastructure, and all three have recently expanded their data centre footprints and also announced plans to open up more geographic regions in the coming months,” said Dinsdale. “This scale is the prime reason why they are able to gain market share and pressure smaller players into consolidation or refocusing their cloud activities.”

AWS announced in September plans to launch a data centre region in Paris, while in the same month IBM sealed the deal to open up a centre in Norway, citing continued Nordic cloud demand.