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It seems like the future of data is ingrained within cloud computing, as hundreds of companies emerge with their own take on the concept. Amazon Web Services currently holds a whopping 32% market share of the cloud space, with the likes of Microsoft and Alphabet's Google making up much of the rest.
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However, let's take a close look at three non-Big Tech alternatives to cloud services.
1. Dropbox
San Francisco-based file-hosting service Dropbox (DBX 2.34%) has been around since 2007 and was founded on the concept of allowing users to store and move their files on multiple devices. The company was one of the earliest cloud-storage success stories.
In recent years, however, Dropbox found itself at the center of some controversial security breaches, including a password leak in August 2016, which released the information of 68 million users. The company has come a long way in the past two years though, shoring up its security issues and gaining a five-star privacy rating from the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
This is quite the leap, which proves that the company has the ability to turn things around when the going gets tough. This ability has also been tested this year, as the company's stock price dropped a massive 24% following its August quarterly earnings report, despite an 18% year-over-year increase in sales.
Why is it in this list then, you may ask? Dropbox has been a long-term player, similar to AWS, and is now planning a revamp of its services to generate long-term subscription revenue. The plan, according to CEO Drew Houston, is to offer a new "all-in-one" service with just one search box for subscribed customers. The company is heavily investing in this new project, which if successful could create a genuine threat to Amazon's market share.
2. Salesforce
Another leading name in cloud computing is salesforce.com (CRM -0.18%), well known as the global leader in customer relationship management (CRM), which gives the company a slight edge over its competition when it comes to acquiring customers.
Founded in 1999, Salesforce enables companies of every size and industry to take advantage of powerful technologies -- cloud, mobile, social, internet of things, artificial intelligence, voice, and blockchain -- to create a 360-degree view of their customers.
Salesforce is another company that has experienced a dip of late, which may not be as bad as it seems. Its stock price dropped more than 2% in September, but despite this has actually seen a rise of 8% year-over-year during a difficult time in the market. Recent earnings came in at 22% growth and also forecast Salesforce to have a stellar 12 months.
Bottom line: The company is still growing rapidly but also spending a lot more to go along with this. Whereas some may see this as a worrying sign, the company has had strong leadership, and large investments will be needed if it is to take on the likes of AWS.
3. Alibaba Cloud
Alibaba Group (BABA 2.92%) looks to be the big, bad adversary of Amazon in recent years. Not only is the Chinese conglomerate challenging Amazon's e-commerce empire for market share, but it has also recently delved into the world of cloud computing.
Founded in 2009 as a subsidiary of BABA, Alibaba Cloud services its own e-commerce empire, as well as thousands of other clients from its Singapore base. Its services include databases, big data processing, data storage, and content delivery network. Alibaba Cloud has an international network of 18 data centers and 42 zones (networks within geographical regions), and is the largest advanced cloud network that includes more than 1,000 CDN nodes and seven deployment regions.
Alibaba Cloud appears determined to become the largest provider of cloud services, as seen in its recent announcement of its five-year targets in late September. At the company's annual investor day in Hangzhou, CEO Daniel Zhang announced that the company is targeting over 1 billion active users and annual gross merchandise volume of $1.4 trillion by 2024.
The ongoing trade war with the U.S. also provides a decent opportunity for Alibaba Cloud to expand in its already impressive Asian market, as U.S. companies like Amazon may struggle to continue operations.
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