According to new research, the top three cloud providers are extending their lead in the market, accounting for 65% of total cloud spending.

AWS is currently the market leader, although Microsoft Azure has been making significant gains, and Google Cloud has been establishing itself as a multi-cloud provider. While the overall market continues to grow at a whopping 34%, these three providers account for 71% of the cloud market share, according to Synergy Research Group.

As the cloud market has grown, the top three providers’ share of cloud market spending has grown as well. In the first quarter of 2022, global cloud spending was $52.7 billion, with the top three raking in 65% of that. In contrast, several years ago, the top three accounted for 52% of global cloud spending, demonstrating their growing dominance in the market.

According to Synergy, smaller companies will need to differentiate themselves by targeting niche markets in order to remain competitive.

“While the level of competition remains high, the huge and rapidly growing cloud market continues to coalesce around Amazon, Microsoft and Google,” said John Dinsdale, a Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group. “Aside from the Chinese market, which remains totally dominated by local Chinese companies, other cloud providers simply cannot match the scale and geographic reach of the big three market leaders. As Amazon, Microsoft and Google continue to grow at 35-50% per year, other non-Chinese cloud providers are typically growing in the 10-20% range. That can still be an attractive proposition for those smaller providers, as long as they focus on regional or service niches where they can differentiate themselves from the big three.”