Magic Quadrant for Infrastructure Platform Consumption Services
15 October 2025 - ID G00826322 - 29 min read
By Jeff Vogel, Tony Harvey, and 2 more
Infrastructure platform consumption services vendors aggregate networking, storage and compute technologies through a platform delivered with pay-for-use subscription pricing. Heads of I&O should use this Magic Quadrant to assess as-a-service vendor platform capabilities to modernize infrastructure operations.
Strategic Planning Assumptions
- By 2029, consumption-based storage as a service (STaaS) will replace 50% of on-premises enterprise storage and data services infrastructure capital expenditure (capex), an increase from 15% in early 2025.
- By 2028, more than 30% of on-premises servers will be provided through a consumption-based, as-a-service solution, up from less than 15% in 2025.
- By 2029, on-premises network as a service (NaaS) will be considered as a deployment option by more than 30% of all enterprises, which is an increase from less than 5% in 2025.
Market Definition/Description
Gartner defines the infrastructure platform consumption services (IPCS) market as a consumption-based, as-a-service offering for mission-critical infrastructure. IPCS-based offerings need to be native to the platform vendor control plane and must include either storage as a service (STaaS), compute as a service (CaaS) or network as a service (NaaS). They can also support data protection as a service (dPaaS). IPCS vendors use SLA-based outcomes rooted in automation and software-defined infrastructure to provide adaptable and modern platforms that support digital transformation. IT outcomes include improved productivity, cyberresilience, continuous workload infrastructure and cost optimization.
IPCS’s primary purpose is to provide a platform-services-based infrastructure to service the hybrid-cloud infrastructure data environment. The pressure to cut or optimize spending, while leading digital business transformation, pushes CIOs and heads of I&O to consider how to extract maximum value from their IT operating model. IPCS offerings enable IT operations to augment or replace capital expenditure (capex) sourcing and full-time-equivalent expenses with a consumption-based hybrid platform operating model.
IPCS modernizes IT operations, shifting the focus from managing physical layer hardware to workload-centric operations in alignment with business applications. SLA-based outcomes replace product-centric features with benefits that include asset cost optimization, productivity and efficiency improvements, sustainability, autonomous workload optimization, cyberresilience and platform innovation capabilities. Heads of I&O receive a more flexible infrastructure usage model that modernizes infrastructure and IT operations.
Mandatory Features
Mandatory features for the IPCS market include support for:
- A domain-specific (e.g., storage, networking, compute), as a service offering that is native (e.g., core IP) to the vendor’s platform control plane
- A central AIOps-based tool for monitoring, observability and proactive SLA management
- A centralized control plane for infrastructure orchestration, provisioning and life cycle management
- A self-service portal for managing as a service features and operations such as metering, billing and capacity additions
- A domain-specific enterprise platform data management service
- The ability to optimize domain-specific usage and utilization levels based on the use of AI/machine learning (ML) telemetry
Common Features
Common features for the IPCS market include support for:
- STaaS
- CaaS
- NaaS
- dPaaS such as disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS), backup as a service (BaaS) and managed archive, which are provided organically or in collaboration with an independent software vendor partner to support recovery scenarios
- A platform-centric infrastructure stack to include support for various runtime key functions that support and manage applications
- Flexible domain-centric consumption licensing options that offer various price models
- A portfolio of IT operating model SLAs, such as productivity and efficiency, asset management and financing, cyberstorage resilience, governance and rapid innovation
- A native software-defined disaggregated architecture to support flexible and modern agile operations for hybrid cloud infrastructure workload deployment models
- A sustainability offering to monitor, report and manage power and CO2 emissions
- A platform-native FinOps tool to support consumption-based metering, billing and infrastructure arbitrage methods
- Autonomous, threshold-based platform capabilities such as the use of AI/ML telemetry to drive proactive workload outcomes
- Multivendor support, including partnering and integrating third-party vendors to provide a more complete platform infrastructure services stack
- Domain-specific features and capabilities that support AI applications/workloads
Magic Quadrant
Vendor Strengths and Cautions
Dell Technologies
Dell Technologies is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. Its platform initiatives include Dell APEX and the recently introduced Dell Automation Platform, which provides for Dell Private Cloud, NativeEdge and Dell AIOps. Through its platform, Dell provides Storage as a Service (STaaS) and Compute as a Service (CaaS).
Dell’s operations are globally diversified and its customers tend to be large enterprises in the healthcare, financial services and manufacturing industries.
Recent enhancements include AI governance, a simplified Broadcom offramp and curated, outcome-based deployment experiences.
- Disaggregated infrastructure focus: Dell offers HCI with three-tier architectures, which allows enterprises to independently scale computing and storage resources based on their specific workload needs, optimize costs and prepare for future information technology evolutions.
- Comprehensive AI-powered operations: Dell AIOps provides AI/machine learning-driven analytics and insights across Dell’s infrastructure portfolio, including PowerStore, PowerSwitch and PowerEdge. It enhances overall efficiency and enables data-driven workload optimization.
- Secure zero-touch provisioning: Dell’s platform emphasizes zero-touch provisioning (ZTP) and zero-trust security embedded directly from the factory using fast identity online (FIDO)-based identity and hardware security modules (HSMs).
- Limited prevalidated ISV solutions: Dell’s breadth of readily available and prevalidated third-party independent software vendor (ISV)-integrated solutions is still developing relative to some competitors’ platform ecosystems.
- Limited proactive cyber resilience: Dell PowerProtect Data Manager and CyberSense are designed to detect encryption from ransomware during the backup phase, focusing on recovery from cyberattacks.
- Limited platform architecture capabilities: Dell’s platform does not yet entirely abstract the complexity of managing diverse workloads through a centralized data control plane, limiting its ability to deliver nondisruptive workload mobility.
Fujitsu
Fujitsu is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. Its uSCALE platform provides a range of as-a-service offerings across various domains, including compute with solutions on PRIMERGY x86 servers, containers with SUSE and Red Hat, and Storage as a Service (STaaS).
Fujitsu’s operations are geographically diversified, and its customers tend to be large enterprises across manufacturing, retail, public sector, finance, information technology services and healthcare.
Over the past year, new offerings have included its private GPT solution, NetApp Keystone integration, Nutanix Cloud Clusters (NC2) support, and ETERNUS AC Fabric Pool. Fujitsu also invested in Cohere for Japanese large language models (LLM).
- Flexible multidomain consumption models: Fujitsu’s uSCALE platform offers pay-as-you-go pricing for various on-premises solutions, including compute, data management, SAP, AI, containers and cyber resiliency. This model aligns information technology spending directly with usage, reducing upfront capex spending.
- Broad ecosystem integration: Fujitsu integrates third-party technologies into its uSCALE platform, enabling I&O teams to leverage existing investments and access tailored third-party solutions for critical workloads like AI and cyber resiliency through a single platform.
- Private, data-governed AI platform: Fujitsu’s investment and partnership with Cohere provides on-premises governance-based, secure AI capability with its private GPT solution that addresses data privacy for sensitive workloads.
- Limited platform maturity: While Fujitsu’s uSCALE is gaining traction, particularly among midsize and enterprise customers, it’s relatively new, which may raise concerns about its scalability, breadth of real-world use cases, or the availability of a large peer community for references.
- Limited AI-driven threat detection: Fujitsu’s cyberthreat detection occurs during or after the data encryption process has been initiated, and it lacks AI-driven threat detection to proactively identify and respond to cyberthreats.
- Limited platform SLAs: uSCALE depends on third-party AI telemetry tools for anomaly detection and optimization, and underwrites operational SLAs on a case-by-case basis, slowing platform SLA innovation.
Hitachi Vantara
Hitachi Vantara is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. Its Virtual Storage Platform One (VSP One) and EverFlex portfolio provide consumption-based services like Storage as a Service (STaaS), Data Protection as a Service (dPaaS), Compute as a Service (CaaS) and AI Data Hub as a Service.
Hitachi Vantara’s operations are geographically diversified, and its customers tend to be large enterprises in sectors such as insurance, public sector, manufacturing, healthcare and telecom.
Over the past year, new enhancements have included the launch of AI Data Hub as a Service, expanded SLA-backed guarantees and a ClearSight Mobile App for real-time insights.
- Cyber resilience guarantee: Hitachi VSP One Platform includes CyberSense for threat detection and offers a financially backed guarantee, providing up to 100% storage credit if data recovery fails after a ransomware attack.
- Unified management: EverFlex Control supports AIOps, observability and orchestration across different environments, including non-Hitachi and cloud infrastructure. This allows for automated operations and reduced resolution times.
- Concrete data sovereignty: Hitachi Vantara’s platform mitigates geopolitical risks by enforcing policy-based data placement with automated compliance capabilities, allowing I&O to control where data resides and how it moves across borders.
- Brand visibility: Hitachi Vantara’s market awareness is limited. Prospective customers considering the vendor often start with a low level of awareness, which may extend the time required to learn about the vendor and its offerings.
- Incomplete data resilience simulation: The VSP One platform does not yet natively offer full ransomware simulations.
- Maintenance simplification is needed: The VSP One platform lags behind competitors in simplifying maintenance operations to reduce human error, security breaches and maintenance complexity.
HPE
HPE is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Its HPE GreenLake platform provides a comprehensive consumption-based as-a-service offering across various infrastructure domains and specialized solutions, including compute as a service, storage as a service, networking as a service, and data protection and cyber resilience as a service.
HPE’s operations are geographically diversified, and its customers tend to be large enterprises including regulated industries such as healthcare, financial services, public sector and manufacturing.
Over the past year, new enhancements include HPE Morpheus, VM Essentials Software, OpsRamp, Zerto, Private Cloud AI, AI factory with NVIDIA, the unified CloudOps suite and expanded ecosystem-independent software vendor integrations for solutions. This includes electronic health records, medical imaging, SAS Viya and smart manufacturing.
- Comprehensive platform portfolio: HPE offers the most comprehensive set of platform offerings and services, including best-of-class infrastructure domain stack products, including storage, compute, networking and AIOps.
- Enterprise-class virtualization alternative: HPE Morpheus VM Essentials offers a cost-effective, enterprise-grade KVM-based virtualization solution for customers impacted by VMware licensing changes and continued support for VMware.
- Unified cloud operations suite: HPE’s AI-powered, multivendor and multicloud HPE CloudOps suite enhances operational agility and reduces administrative complexity.
- Platform complexity: The breadth and continuous evolution of HPE GreenLake’s platform capabilities, which encompass various infrastructure, private cloud and data services offerings, can be difficult for customers to navigate.
- Overlooked market perception: Some heads of I&O prospects often mistake HPE GreenLake for a lease financing capex solution, overlooking its capability as a platform for diverse as-a-service workloads across all delivery models.
- Juniper hybrid platform integration: Combining Juniper Networks connectivity, security, unified management and AI across hybrid platform environments poses considerable challenges with uncertain outcomes regarding HPE platform network-as-a-service capabilities.
IBM
IBM is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. It offers IBM Power Virtual Server platform, IBM Storage as-a-Service and Ceph as a Service.
IBM’s operations are geographically diversified, and its customers tend to be large enterprises in financial services, government, technology, education and consumer products.
Over the past year, IBM launched Ceph as a Service and enhanced Power Virtual Server Private on-premises deployment options. The vendor updated AI models for ransomware detection and improved Storage Insights with AI-driven features. IBM also acquired HashiCorp, with plans to strengthen its hybrid cloud and automation capabilities.
- Robust cyber resilience and encryption: Backed by a cyber resilience SLA, hardware encryption, and SafeGuarded Copy, IBM provides ransomware detection by analyzing input/output (I/O) operations. It guarantees a detection time below 60 seconds and a false positive rate of less than 1%.
- Controlled sovereign environments: IBM’s platform offerings run entirely on-premises or in customer-controlled environments, enabling customers to meet strict data residency and compliance requirements while providing cloudlike scalability and automation.
- AI-driven workload placement advisor: IBM Storage Insights includes an AI-powered tool that helps identify and nondisruptively migrate workloads by evaluating performance requirements, capacity needs and I/O profiles. The tool allows workloads to be rebalanced between devices.
- Platform SLA gaps: IBM lags behind competitors in SLAs that favor IT operations and does not offer a formal roadmap to address demands or SLA gaps.
- Absence of platform business unit head: IBM’s platform-native efforts are coordinated by a central IBM infrastructure team, making it challenging to execute a unified vision for platform priorities.
- Limited PowerVS operating system support: IBM PowerVS is based on the IBM Power architecture and does not support x86, ARM or Microsoft Windows.
Join Digital
Join Digital is a Niche Player in this Magic Quadrant. It offers a network-as-a-service model with LAN networking hardware, software, internet connectivity and security via its cloud platform. Its Workplace Analytics offering addresses complex enterprise networking needs.
Join Digital’s operations are regionally focused in the U.S. and EMEA, and its customers tend to be enterprises in the commercial real estate, high tech and financial services markets.
Join Digital will continue to invest in AI assistants and UX scoring to enhance its service offerings further and meet evolving enterprise demands.
- Customer experience: The vendor offers hands-off, SLA-based operation, targeting organizations with limited resources.
- Built-in zero-trust network security: The NaaS offering includes a plug-and-play approach that uses automation to simplify Day 1 network deployment, AI to optimize the experience and integrated zero-trust security capabilities to protect the enterprise.
- Innovation: Join Digital’s Workplace Analytics platform provides real-time data on occupancy, indoor environmental quality and network performance.
- Emerging vendor limitations: Transitioning to Join’s NaaS will result in dependence on Join’s platform and ecosystem, making switching providers complex and costly at an early stage.
- Marketing execution: Join Digital has limited market awareness. Prospective customers considering the vendor often start with a low level of awareness, which may extend the time required to learn about the vendor and its offerings.
- Limited geographical reach: Join Digital’s geographic strategy is narrowly focused, which will limit its ability to address global enterprise customer demands.
Lenovo
Lenovo is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. It offers the Lenovo Hybrid Cloud Platform (LHCP) and TruScale consumption services for end-user devices, edge, data center and cloud environments. Lenovo also provides backup as a service, cyber resilience as a service, high-performance computing as a service and infrastructure as a service (IaaS).
Lenovo’s operations are geographically diverse, and its customers tend to be large enterprises in banking, insurance, energy, manufacturing, retail, higher education and the public sector.
Over the past year, new GA offerings and enhancements have included AI-enabled automated data center management, Kubernetes orchestration templates and multivendor graphics processor units (GPU) support.
Lenovo has also introduced Cyber Resiliency as a service and is acquiring Infinidat for enterprise storage.
- Global, sovereign-ready infrastructure: The Lenovo TruScale Hybrid Cloud Platform enables sovereign-ready infrastructure through localized deployment options, data residency support, region-specific compliance and local ecosystem integrations.
- Complete offerings: Lenovo’s TruScale consumption services cover end-user devices, edge, servers, storage, networking and cloud environments.
- Efficiency and automation: The TruScale Lenovo Hybrid Cloud Platform (LHCP) embeds FinOps visibility and AIOps capabilities with XClarity One for real-time telemetry, predictive analytics and automated remediation.
- Limited platform SLA services: Lenovo’s TruScale Hybrid Cloud Platform offerings rely on integration with independent software vendors for platform services functionality, which may limit Lenovo’s direct control over service-level assurances that favor IT operations.
- Brand recognition: Lenovo is known primarily as a hardware-as-a-service vendor for end-user devices with limited platform-native enterprise storage as a service offerings.
- Limited storage portfolio: Lenovo’s portfolio is primarily based on original equipment manufacturer (OEM) NetApp ONTAP solutions. It does not provide a high-end enterprise storage as a service platform.
NetApp
NetApp is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. It offers storage as a service and delivers Intelligent Data Infrastructure via its ONTAP and BlueXP control planes. It enables first-party hyperscaler platform services in all major public clouds and Keystone Storage as a Service (STaaS) for on-premises.
NetApp’s operations are geographically diversified, and its customers tend to be large enterprises in financial services, the public sector, high-technology manufacturing and healthcare.
Over the past year, enhancements include Autonomous Ransomware Protection (ARP)/AI expansion to block/native cloud, new cloud service tiers/integrations, FSx for ONTAP Flexible, ANF Cool Access/Backup, NVIDIA AI ecosystem optimization and SIEM integrations.
- AI ransomware defense: NetApp’s Autonomous Ransomware Protection (ARP/AI) delivers third-party validated 99% precision threat detection for file, block and native cloud workloads and a Ransomware Recovery Guarantee.
- Hyperscaler native services: NetApp collaborates with hyperscalers to enable first-party services in Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure and Google to simplify multicloud operational capabilities, data mobility, workload portability and consistency in storage management between on-premises and public cloud.
- Unified data plane: NetApp provides a unified data storage management service capability that simplifies data management across diverse data types and workloads, and reduces operational complexity.
- Limited cyber resilience capabilities: NetApp does not offer an advanced NetApp-native isolated clean room recovery capability designed to enhance cyber resilience by facilitating safe data restoration within an isolated environment.
- Limited IT operations SLAs: NetApp does not offer SLA assurances for critical operational categories such as productivity/efficiency, asset management and continuous workload cost-performance optimization.
- Limited third-party ISV solutions: NetApp’s platform does not offer a platform marketplace portfolio of third-party ISV as a service consumption-oriented data services solutions to accelerate IT operations innovation and enable rapid adoption of advanced services.
Nile
Nile is a Challenger in this Magic Quadrant. It offers the Nile Autonomous Network Platform, which delivers AI-powered Network-as-a-Service (NaaS), including Access, Trust and Edge.
Nile’s operations are primarily focused on North America and EMEA regions, and its customers tend to be midsize to large enterprises in verticals including education, healthcare, retail, financial services and smart cities.
Over the past year, Nile introduced the Nile Trust Service, Nile Nav (AI deployment app) and Nile Experience Intelligence (NXI) for AI-powered operations. The vendor also launched professional service offerings, simplified pricing and introduced zero-trust network access security.
- Autonomous AI-powered operations: Nile’s AI Automation Center, powered by Nile Experience Intelligence (NXI), resolves network issues automatically using NXI.
- Built-in zero trust security: Nile embeds Zero Trust capabilities directly into the network infrastructure, providing per-device isolation and microsegmentation with identity and posture-based access without requiring traditional NAC appliances, virtual LANs (VLANs) or manual access control lists (ACLs). This eliminates the need for separate appliances.
- Guaranteed performance NaaS: Nile offers financially backed SLAs for network availability, coverage and capacity, a unique competitive differentiation. The vendor’s NaaS model bundles all hardware, software, upgrades and operations into a single subscription, reducing capex and providing predictable operating expenditure (opex).
- Limited asset management: Nile does not provide customer-facing AIOps capacity asset management or optimization tools, nor does it integrate with client-side ordering, billing or supply chain systems.
- Developing ecosystem integration: Nile’s breadth of readily available and prevalidated third-party ISV integrations continues to develop compared with leading competitors.
- Limited geographical reach: Nile’s sales and geographic strategies are narrowly focused, limiting its ability to address the needs of global enterprise customers.
Pure Storage
Pure Storage is a Leader in this Magic Quadrant. Its Enterprise Data Cloud (EDC), built on its Pure Storage Platform, delivers SLA-driven, consumption-based storage as a service and data services through Evergreen//One (block, file, object), Pure Storage Cloud and Portworx.
Pure Storage’s operations are geographically diversified, and its customers tend to be large enterprises specializing in sectors like financial services, healthcare, telecom and the public sector for critical workloads, including AI and medical imaging.
Over the past year, new enhancements include Evergreen//One for Medical Imaging, an Adaptive Service Tier, Snapshots Retention Add-on, enhanced Pure Protect, an updated Cyber Recovery and Resilience SLA and new integrations with Varonis, CrowdStrike and Kyndryl.
- Industry-leading SLA outcomes: Pure Storage offers a comprehensive portfolio of binding platform SLAs for Evergreen//One subscriptions.
- AI-powered autonomous operations: Pure’s EDC reduces IT administration and support tasks by providing Pure1 AI-powered telemetry in conjunction with AI Co-Pilot features for infrastructure management and SLA enforcement.
- Best-in-class platform capabilities: Pure Storage’s platform offers strong capabilities in data governance, cyber recovery and resilience, security SLAs, compliance and nondisruptive life cycle management.
- High, ongoing costs: Some users report that Pure Storage services costs can be higher than competitors impacting the total cost of ownership and lifetime platform value.
- Service level offerings are ambiguous: The lack of a distinct definition of commercial value and benefits for heads of I&O between Evergreen//One, Evergreen//Flex and Evergreen//Forever could lead to confusion when comparing the different Evergreen-branded solutions.
- Pure Storage-centric-focused control plane: Pure’s Fusion control plane utility focuses primarily on Pure’s ecosystem, limiting its utility as a universal control plane for all storage assets for I&O teams operating in highly heterogeneous environments with significant investments in diverse storage solutions.
Vendors Added and Dropped
We review and adjust our inclusion criteria for Magic Quadrants as markets change. As a result of these adjustments, the mix of vendors in any Magic Quadrant may change over time. A vendor's appearance in a Magic Quadrant one year and not the next does not necessarily indicate that we have changed our opinion of that vendor. It may be a reflection of a change in the market and, therefore, changed evaluation criteria, or of a change of focus by that vendor.
Added
As this is a new Magic Quadrant, no new vendors were added.
Dropped
As this is a new Magic Quadrant, no new vendors were dropped.
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria
To qualify for inclusion, providers must meet all of the following criteria and, when requested, must provide evidence to support some or all of the claims made:
- Must offer at least one platform-as-a-service offering, hostable on-premises in one or more on-premises infrastructure domains: storage, compute, or networking.
- Total minimum product and services revenue $12 million of “as-a-service” consumption revenue reported through 30 June 2025.
- Minimum of 25 active production customers and installations, features and capabilities generally available (GA) from 30 June 2025.
- Must offer a standardized and extensible catalog of APIs, and AI automation for complete control, visibility and streamlined management in support ecosystem options for consistent orchestration and life cycle management, and SLAs.
- Vendors must support active customers in two of the five major geographical regions (North America, Europe/Middle East/Africa, APAC, Japan, Latin America).
- Must support at least three of five use cases, with support for hybrid IT operations.
- Must own (not OEM) and develop the core infrastructure domain operating system native to the vendor platform control plane.
- Must offer data management capabilities to support their platform capabilities and services.
Evaluation Criteria
Ability to Execute
Gartner evaluates vendors’ ability to offer and support infrastructure platform services that enable customers to achieve their on-premises cloud operating model objectives and benefits. This evaluation covers features available in a vendor’s portfolio of products and services that support platform initiatives, and capabilities used by a vendor to help customers take advantage of platform capabilities and SLA-based outcomes.
Ability to Execute Evaluation Criteria
| Evaluation Criteria | Weighting |
|---|---|
Product or Service | High |
Overall Viability | Medium |
Sales Execution/Pricing | Medium |
Market Responsiveness/Record | Medium |
Marketing Execution | High |
Customer Experience | High |
Operations | Low |
Source: Gartner (October 2025)
Completeness of Vision
Gartner evaluates vendors on their market-driven ability to envision infrastructure platform services capabilities that enable customers to achieve their on-premises cloud operating model objectives and benefits. This evaluation covers features available in a vendor’s portfolio of platform services and products that support platform initiatives, and capabilities used by a vendor to help customers take advantage of platform capabilities and SLA-based outcomes.
Completeness of Vision Evaluation Criteria
| Evaluation Criteria | Weighting |
|---|---|
Market Understanding | High |
Marketing Strategy | High |
Sales Strategy | Medium |
Offering (Product) Strategy | High |
Business Model | Medium |
Vertical/Industry Strategy | Medium |
Innovation | High |
Geographic Strategy | Medium |
Source: Gartner (October 2025)
Quadrant Descriptions
Leaders
Vendors in the Leaders quadrant have the highest composite scores for their Ability to Execute and Completeness of Vision. A Leader has broad platform market recognition across major geographies, brand awareness, financial performance and enterprise credibility. Leaders are market-driven — they envision the market over time and make the long-term investments needed to drive platform-native outcomes, technologies, capabilities and ecosystem partnerships. These vendors clearly understand infrastructure platform market needs and how platform features and AI-powered SLA outcomes, combined with platform business model innovation, transform and modernize IT operations. Leaders are innovators and thought leaders with well-articulated plans that customers and prospects can depend on for their platform infrastructures and strategies.
Challengers
Vendors in the Challengers quadrant participate in major elements of the infrastructure platform market and execute reasonably well enough to threaten vendors in the Leaders quadrant. Challengers have platform features, core technologies and nascent or emerging AI-powered SLAs to compete, but lag behind Leaders in the broader elements of a full-scale platform business model or technological innovation to advance platform derivatives. Challengers have not yet demonstrated long-term and consistent investments in innovation or vision, or have nascent, leading-edge platform-enabled product capabilities, business model, marketing and sales strategies to enable and support the transition to a platform-native service provider leader.
Visionaries
Vendors in the Visionaries quadrant provide leading market-driven infrastructure platform features and innovative platform capabilities across the spectrum of the hybrid IT operations platform stack offerings to address operationally or financially essential end-user demands. Enterprise storage clients and peers recognize visionaries for their ability to continuously demonstrate compelling thought leadership and an innovative view of the future for modern IT operations, often introducing disruptive platform initiatives, supporting technologies or approaches. However, they have not yet demonstrated the ability to capture meaningful platform market share through market-driven sales and marketing initiatives that underpin concrete commercial traction.
Niche Players
Vendors in the Niche Players quadrant often narrowly focus on specific geographical markets, vertical industry segments or limited use cases. This quadrant may include vendors ramping up their product and platform offerings or larger vendors having difficulty developing and executing their vision against new platform market demands.
Context
This Magic Quadrant represents vendor platform-native, as-a-service offerings. When choosing a vendor, the head of I&O must also consider the core platform principles below in conjunction with the as-a-service offering, which are targeted at modernizing IT operations via an on-premises cloud operating model:
Modern, modular, and governed infrastructure foundation:
- Employ a modular, on-premises cloud-native stack that includes either compute, or storage, or network and data services integrated with robust governance frameworks and controls. Design for enterprise agility, IT operations modernization and adherence to data residency and sovereignty requirements across all operating geographies.
Actual elastic consumption and adaptive pricing:
- Enable consumption-based licensing and pay-for-use that flexibly scales up and down with actual workload demands. These financial models should adapt to the distributed realities of hybrid and edge deployments while supporting transparency for sovereign and regulated environments.
Unified, API-driven orchestration for core, cloud and edge:
- Provide a standardized, API-centric hybrid architecture for unified control and data planes, empowering orchestration, provisioning, migration and life cycle management of workloads and data, whether in the core, cloud or at the edge. Ensure policy enforcement and governance are embedded at every operational layer.
Outcome-based and compliance-driven SLAs:
- Deliver SLAs grounded in measurable operational and business outcomes (productivity, efficiency, TCO), with explicit mapping to data residency, sovereignty and compliance mandates. SLAs must be enforceable within the platform runtime environment to fulfill SLAs.
Business-unit-driven, domain-aware delivery model:
- Operate as a discrete business unit supporting either compute, storage, or network and data domains, with service and technology roadmaps aligned to platform lifetime value, proactive demand management and continuous improvement, including localized compliance, residency and sovereignty needs.
Advanced AI/GenAI operations with governance safeguards:
- Integrate advanced AI, GenAI and multiagent systems within platform management — supporting intelligent resource management and workflow automation. Ensure all AI uses are transparent, explainable and governed to meet regulatory, data privacy and ethical requirements.
Software-defined, programmable, sovereignty-aware architecture:
- Use software-defined, programmable and disaggregated policy-driven architecture for sovereignty, residency, and locality, allowing secure, flexible and resilient operations.
Holistic data life cycle, governance and protection:
- Deliver a comprehensive suite of intelligent data management services, covering governance, sovereignty, residency, mobility, access controls, security, compliance and data quality for the whole data life cycle, with automated policy enforcement and observability across all environments.
Open ecosystem syndication and edge Innovation:
- Syndicate, curate and integrate third-party ISV and ecosystem solutions, including edge-specific services, making them available as modular, branded platform services. Foster innovation while adhering to every integrated service’s data governance, residency and sovereignty requirements.
Heads of I&O must also ensure that IPCS capabilities are acquired at the right price points using industry benchmarks across as-a-service consumption (opex) offerings for the organization. Preference should be given to vendors that provide written platform SLAs and/or guarantees regarding IT operating model outcomes, such as productivity and asset management, continuous optimization, rapid innovation through platform ecosystem ISV syndication and platform cyber resilience. Furthermore, those that have established competent, global partner networks should be given preference; this will ensure that solution design, installation and managed services are flawless, and that support is integrated with AIOps tools in conjunction with control and data planes.
Internally, heads of I&O must work with application owners to align IT priorities and outcomes to business demands. The IPCS market underscores the shift from traditional IT commodity infrastructure budgeting processes and capex sourcing to platform-native services, including metrics-based IT operating model SLA sourcing. Heads of I&O must reexamine their long-term infrastructure platform requirements through this lens and choose a vendor and a partner-based platform approach that effectively aligns IPCS solutions with desired modern IT operating model services outcomes. The data center infrastructure industry is undergoing a sea change unlike anything before this time, so heads of I&O must develop an improved and extensible hybrid platform strategy that will guide this period of transformation.
Market Overview
Infrastructure platform consumption services (IPCS) vendors aggregate multiple as-a-service technologies and suppliers, such as STaaS, CaaS and NaaS providers, into a singular platform. This platform orchestrates the different infrastructure domain resource types and delivers them to IT operations on a pay-as-you-go subscription model. Today’s IPCS market comprises storage, compute, networking and data services vendors. It has anticipated the shift from public cloud first to adopting an on-premises cloud operating model platform strategy based on SLA outcomes. Many of these platform vendors are at different stages of business model development and IPCS deployment solutions. They account for over $3 billion in annual recurring revenue (ARR) and over $15 billion in total contract value (TCV) as of mid-2025. Vendors are repurposing their corporate and organizational strategies, business models, offerings and market initiatives to enable and demonstrate their distinctive platform value and services differentiation.
IPCS vendor roadmaps include increased emphasis on integrating ecosystem data services with their control planes and data-driven insights based on hybridwide telemetry. Vendors have broadened their offerings portfolio to include cyber detection and data resilience focused on ransomware, data protection, disaster recovery and sustainability for power and carbon emission efficiency.
To consolidate the siloed domains into a centralized and efficacious IT operating model, heads of I&O will need to consolidate and unify their individual domains — storage, compute, networking and data service — to a platform delivery model.
IPCS vendors are assessed on a wide range of capabilities, deliverables and investments to address the broader needs of IT operations beyond product features and traditional capex sourcing and support methods. Capabilities include:
- Business model
- Platform strategy and market-driven thought leadership initiatives
- Platform infrastructure stack through either a direct or a platform stack partnered approach
- Breadth of services as a service offering
- Advanced AI-powered telemetry and SLAs
- Asset management and financial planning
- Product and technology portfolio
- Ecosystem syndication and integration
This is the first version of the Magic Quadrant for Infrastructure Platform Consumption Services. It replaces the Market Guide for Platform-Native Consumption Services.
Inquiries and published Gartner research.
Ability to Execute
Product/Service: Core goods and services offered by the vendor for the defined market. This includes current product/service capabilities, quality, feature sets, skills and so on, whether offered natively or through 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, the financial and practical success of the business unit, and the likelihood that the individual business unit will continue investing in the product, will continue offering the product and will advance the state of the art within the organization's portfolio of products.
Sales Execution/Pricing: The vendor's capabilities in all presales activities and the structure that supports them. This includes deal management, pricing and negotiation, presales support, and the overall effectiveness of the sales channel.
Market Responsiveness/Record: Ability to respond, change direction, be flexible and achieve competitive success as opportunities develop, competitors act, customer needs evolve and market dynamics change. This criterion also considers the vendor's history of responsiveness.
Marketing Execution: The clarity, quality, creativity and efficacy of programs designed to deliver the organization's message to influence the market, promote the brand and business, increase awareness of the products, and establish a positive identification with the product/brand and organization in the minds of 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 be successful with the products evaluated. Specifically, this includes the ways customers receive technical support or account support. This can also include ancillary tools, customer support programs (and the quality 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 the quality of the organizational structure, including skills, experiences, programs, systems and other vehicles 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 translate those into products and services. Vendors that show the highest degree of vision listen to and understand buyers' wants and needs, and can shape or enhance those with their added vision.
Marketing Strategy: A clear, differentiated set of messages consistently communicated throughout the organization and externalized through the website, advertising, customer programs and positioning statements.
Sales Strategy: The strategy for selling products that uses the appropriate network of direct and indirect sales, 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 that emphasizes differentiation, functionality, methodology and feature sets as they map to current and future requirements.
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 the specific needs of individual market segments, including vertical markets.
Innovation: Direct, related, complementary and synergistic layouts of resources, expertise or capital for investment, consolidation, defensive or pre-emptive purposes.
Geographic Strategy: The vendor's strategy to direct resources, skills and offerings to meet the specific needs of geographies outside the "home" or native geography, either directly or through partners, channels and subsidiaries as appropriate for that geography and market.