After training 200+ Cloud GTM leaders, here's their playbook.

One pattern is crystal clear:

The old approach of treating marketplaces as "just another channel" or "waiting for partners to adopt marketplaces" simply doesn't work anymore.

Join us to learn what does. It’s free.

Top performers are taking a different path and many of them leverage partners:

• They recognize that channel partners will continue to influence customer buying decisions

• They're creating joint solutions with partners to address specific industry challenges

• They're reaching new customers and revenue streams by enabling partners to build services around their marketplace offerings

Join me and Darren Sharpe, Microsoft Commercial Marketplace Lead - UK Services Partners, for an insight-packed session where we'll break down these trends and proven strategies driving marketplace-channel success in 2025.

Darren Sharpe is one of the most experienced experts in transformation of traditional channel models in the cloud and AI era. And one of the best speakers on this topic that I know.

📅 When: February 11, 10.30-11.30 AM PT

and now back to breaking down Q4 insights.

Cloud Growth Remains Strong Across Hyperscalers

AWS: $115B Annual Run Rate, 19% Growth in Q4

AWS posted 19% year-over-year growth in Q4, reaching an impressive $115 billion annualized run rate.

Amazon CFO emphasized continued momentum across both generative AI and non-generative AI offerings:

“We continue to see growth in both generative AI and non-generative AI offerings as companies turn their attention to newer initiatives, bring more workloads to the cloud, and tap into the power of generative AI."

Microsoft Azure: 31% Growth at Massive Scale

Microsoft Azure reported 31% growth, an impressive achievement given its massive revenue base. While 1-2 percentage points lower than previous quarters, it remains a strong result.

Even excluding AI, which contributed 13 percentage points to growth, Azure’s core cloud services expanded by 18%—demonstrating solid momentum in traditional cloud migration and modernization.

Microsoft expects Azure growth to remain strong at 31-32% next quarter.

Google Cloud: $12B Revenue, 30% Growth—Despite Capacity Constraints

Google Cloud revenue reached $12 billion, reflecting 30% year-over-year growth—still among the fastest-growing hyperscalers. However, this growth was slightly below Q3’s 35% increase and some investor expectations (>30%).

A "tight supply/demand situation" suggests Google Cloud could have grown even faster if more infrastructure capacity had been available.

Capacity Constraints Holding Back Hyperscaler Growth

All three cloud giants indicated that they would be growing even faster if not for capacity limitations.

Looking ahead, Google’s CFO highlighted that 2025 growth rates may fluctuate depending on how quickly new capacity is deployed. This suggests that Q4's supply constraints could ease as new infrastructure comes online, allowing Google to fulfill pent-up demand throughout 2025.

AWS echoed similar sentiments, stating that growth may be "lumpy" in the coming years due to enterprise adoption cycles, infrastructure expansion, and evolving technology advancements.

However, Amazon remains highly optimistic:

“AWS is a reasonably large business by most folks' standards. And though we expect growth will be lumpy over the next few years as enterprise adoption cycles, capacity considerations, and technology advancements impact timing, it's hard to overstate how optimistic we are about what lies ahead for AWS customers and business.”

AI is More Than Hype

AWS’s AI business is already growing at a triple-digit percentage YoY on a multi-billion dollar revenue run rate.

AWS

CEO Andy Jassy called AI:

"Probably the biggest technology shift and opportunity in business since the internet."

Microsoft

Microsoft was the most specific on AI revenue, revealing an impressive $13B AI run rate, contributing 13 percentage points to Azure’s overall growth.

This signals real enterprise AI adoption, not just experimentation.

Google Cloud

• Cloud customers now use 8x more compute for AI than they did 18 months ago.

• Vertex AI platform saw 5x customer growth YoY.

These numbers underscore accelerating AI adoption across Google Cloud customers.