Top IaaS Vendors in 2025

Looking for the best IaaS providers to power apps, AI workloads, and hybrid cloud in 2025?
With multi-cloud and edge expanding fast, IT teams are under pressure to deliver performance, resilience, security, and cost control at global scale. The right IaaS platform brings on-demand compute, storage, and networking together—so you can deploy quickly, scale automatically, and meet sovereignty and compliance requirements.

Based on Olive’s 100-point evaluation model, this guide ranks the top IaaS vendors by capability breadth, security, global presence, networking, storage performance, integrations, and overall value. Whether you’re migrating enterprise workloads or optimizing developer velocity, use this report to shortlist the best IaaS providers in 2025.

What Is IaaS?

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) delivers virtualized compute, storage, and networking over the internet. Teams spin up instances (including GPU families for AI/ML), attach block/object/file storage, configure VPC networking, and scale elastically—without buying or managing hardware.

Modern IaaS is more than VM hosting: providers now bundle observability, security controls, FinOps tooling, hybrid/edge connectivity, and global regions for low-latency delivery and data residency.

How we evaluated: In Olive’s 2025 framework, each provider was assessed against 200+ standardized infrastructure requirements. Response Scores drive ranking; Response Details surface strengths and caveats—focusing on technical and business-critical criteria.

Why IaaS matters now

• AI-ready infrastructure: GPU/accelerator instances, high-throughput storage, and fast east-west networking.

• Hybrid & multi-cloud by default: Consistent policy and control planes across on-prem, public cloud, and edge.

• Security & compliance: Strong IAM/RBAC, encryption/KMS, auditability, and sovereignty controls are table stakes.

• FinOps discipline: Forecasting, budget controls, tagging and showback/chargeback to keep spend predictable.

• Global reach: More regions and POPs reduce latency and unlock regional market expansion.

Trends reshaping IaaS in 2025

• Accelerators everywhere: GPU families and AI-optimized storage/IO become must-have SKUs.

• Sovereign cloud options: Residency, regional isolation, and regulated industry blueprints drive provider choice.

• Network modernization: Private links, peering, global backbones, and edge POP growth for low-latency apps.

• Automation & operations tooling: Native monitoring, auto-scaling, backup/DR orchestration, and policy as code.

• FinOps-oriented pricing: Commitment discounts, savings plans, and transparent storage/egress models.

Market Structure & Competitive Landscape

• Leaders: AWS, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform — broad services + strong execution.

• Challengers: Rackspace, OVHcloud, Tencent Cloud, DigitalOcean — competitive on price, regional strengths, or managed expertise.

• Niche Specialists: Linode (Akamai Cloud), Wasabi — developer-friendly or storage-focused complements to hyperscalers.

Evaluation Criteria for IaaS Vendors

Olive’s scoring emphasizes technical and core business factors IT buyers care about most:

• Compute & Instance Families (general purpose, memory/compute-optimized, GPU/AI)

• Storage Services (block/object/file performance, lifecycle, durability)

• Networking & Connectivity (VPC/VNet, private link, interconnect, edge/POP reach)

• Scalability & Resilience (autoscaling, multi-AZ/region architectures, SLAs)

• Security & Compliance (IAM/RBAC, KMS, encryption, audit/logging, certifications)

• Global Presence & Sovereignty (regions, zones, residency guarantees)

• Cost Management (FinOps) (forecasting, budgets, allocation/showback)

• Ecosystem & Integration (marketplace, APIs, DevOps integrations)

• Support & CX (SLA tiers, onboarding, documentation, training)

Leaderboard (by average score)

Vendor Deep Dives

Amazon Web Services (AWS) — 8.62/10

Strengths

• Scalability: Horizontal scaling and autoscaling patterns are mature for spiky workloads. (9.5/10)

• Storage: Strong data lifecycle and archiving options across S3/Glacier tiers. (9.5/10)

• Cost Management: Budgets, alerts, and allocation tooling help enforce FinOps. (9.5/10)
  Considerations

• Networking: Bandwidth management is available but may require advanced design for cost/perf balance. (7.0/10)

• Security Ops: Incident response controls are robust; buyers should align playbooks to AWS patterns. (7.0/10)

• BC/DR: Crisis communications tooling is outside core DR flows—plan processes accordingly. (6.0/10)

Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI) — 8.55/10

Strengths

• Compute: High-performance bare-metal/GPU options for database and enterprise workloads. (9.5–10/10)

• Networking: Private connectivity and predictable interconnect pricing. (9.0/10)

• Security: Strong KMS/encryption posture and enterprise identity integrations. (9.0/10)
  Considerations

• Ecosystem depth: Smaller partner marketplace vs. AWS/Azure; validate tool integrations. (≈7/10)

• Support tiers: Enterprise support is solid; confirm SLAs and response targets by region. (≈7/10)

• License mobility: Check license transfer nuances for complex estates. (≈6/10)

Microsoft Azure — 8.54/10

Strengths

• Hybrid: Azure Arc enables consistent governance across on-prem and multi-cloud. (9.5/10)

• Security & Compliance: Mature IAM, KMS, audit, and regulatory coverage. (9.5/10)

• Integration: Deep alignment with Microsoft identity, productivity, and ERP stacks. (10/10)
  Considerations

• Complexity: Navigation/pricing can be intricate—enforce tagging and budgets early. (≈7/10)

• Regional variance: Performance and feature availability can differ by geography. (≈7/10)

• Support expectations: Outcomes vary by tier; confirm escalation paths. (≈7/10)

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) — 8.49/10

Strengths

• Observability: Strong monitoring/logs/traces with SRE-friendly tooling. (9.5/10)

• Storage/Capacity: Durable, scalable storage with clear lifecycle policies. (9.5/10)

• Automation: Native monitoring + policy/automation to maintain SLOs. (9.5/10)
  Considerations

• Performance planning: Public docs can be sparse on certain allocation caveats—test critical workloads. (7.0/10)

• Load balancing nuances: Validate architecture patterns for global LB efficiency. (8.0/10)

• Data integration specifics: Confirm connectors/pipelines for your data stack. (5.0/10)

Rackspace — 7.90/10

Strengths

• Managed expertise: Migration, operations, and multi-cloud orchestration. (≈9–10/10)

• Support quality: Trusted enterprise support/consulting for hybrid environments. (≈9/10)

• Flexibility: Strong option when you need services across AWS/Azure/GCP. (≈9/10)
  Considerations

• Native breadth: Relies on hyperscalers for core IaaS primitives. (≈6/10)

• Regional variation: Validate service availability and SLAs by region. (≈7/10)

• Cost: Services add value—ensure ROI model vs. direct hyperscaler ops. (≈7/10)

OVHcloud — 7.88/10

Strengths

• Cost transparency: Competitive, predictable pricing with clear models. (≈9/10)

• Sovereignty: European data residency and compliance positioning. (≈9/10)

• Networking: Strong backbone and dedicated server options. (≈9/10)
  Considerations

• Catalog breadth: Smaller service range than hyperscalers—confirm required features. (≈6/10)

• Global footprint: Limited presence outside Europe—check latency/regions. (≈6/10)

• Ecosystem: Verify marketplace tools and integrations. (≈6/10)

Tencent Cloud — 7.70/10

Strengths

• APAC strength: Broad coverage in Asia with expanding global reach. (≈9/10)

• Edge/CDN: Competitive content delivery and POP distribution. (≈9/10)

• Core IaaS: Solid compute and storage options for regional deployments. (≈9/10)
  Considerations

• Ecosystem maturity: Partner/tooling depth outside APAC can lag. (≈6/10)

• Enterprise support: Validate SLAs and escalation in your target regions. (≈6/10)

• Compliance mapping: Align sovereignty/regulatory needs by country. (≈6/10)

DigitalOcean — 7.60/10

Strengths

• Simplicity: Fast provisioning, developer-friendly UI, clear docs. (≈9–10/10)

• Predictable pricing: Transparent SKUs for SMB/startup workloads. (≈9/10)

• Time-to-value: Minimal setup to go live quickly. (≈9/10)
  Considerations

• Enterprise features: Limited advanced compliance/controls. (≈6/10)

• Global regions: Smaller footprint; confirm latency and availability. (≈6/10)

• Hybrid patterns: Validate private connectivity/interconnect needs. (≈6/10)

Linode (Akamai Cloud) — 6.89/10

Strengths

• Developer-friendly: Straightforward provisioning and documentation. (≈9/10)

• Network leverage: Backed by Akamai’s edge presence. (≈8–9/10)

• Cost: Attractive for smaller teams and test/dev. (≈9/10)
  Considerations

• Enterprise controls: Narrower compliance and governance vs. hyperscalers. (≈6/10)

• Ecosystem size: Fewer turnkey integrations. (≈6/10)

• Region breadth: Validate locality and redundancy options. (≈6/10)

Wasabi — 6.87/10

Strengths

• Object storage focus: High-performance, low-cost storage at scale. (≈9/10)

• Pricing model: No egress fees; simple and predictable. (≈9/10)

• Use cases: Excellent for backup/archiving and data-heavy workloads. (≈9/10)
  Considerations

• Scope: Not a full IaaS platform—pair with compute/network elsewhere. (≈5–6/10)

• Integrations: Validate pipeline/tools for your data flows. (≈6/10)

• Sovereignty: Confirm residency and retention policies for regulated data. (≈6/10)

Recommendations

• Global, mission-critical workloads: Start with AWS, Azure, GCP, OCI; map regions, SLAs, and GPU options to workload tiers.

• Cost-control & developer velocity: DigitalOcean and Linode keep things simple with predictable pricing.

• Data sovereignty & EU focus: OVHcloud is a strong shortlist for residency and transparent pricing.

• APAC expansion: Tencent Cloud offers strong regional coverage and edge/CDN capabilities.

• Storage-led strategy: Wasabi is an excellent object storage complement to your compute cloud.

• Managed help: Choose Rackspace when you need migration, operations, or multi-cloud orchestration expertise.

Notes on Methodology

This report is based on structured evaluation data collected through Olive’s platform. Each vendor was assessed against standardized IaaS requirements; non-technical items like PR and social presence were excluded from the analysis.

• Scoring: Vendor averages reflect a simple mean of requirement-level scoring on a line by line basis.

• Strengths & Considerations: Derived directly from Response Details, focused on compute, storage, networking, security, global presence, FinOps, and support.

• Comparability: All vendors were evaluated against the same criteria, enabling apples-to-apples comparison.

Important Notice: This research has been generated and summarized using AI. While every effort has been made to ensure accuracy and fairness, readers should view this report as a decision support tool, not absolute guidance. We recommend using it as a foundation for deeper due diligence, vendor demonstrations, and stakeholder discussions before making purchasing decisions.

About Olive

Olive helps IT teams evaluate and select technology with data, not pay-to-play opinions. Our platform structures requirements, collects vendor responses, and scores platforms against standardized criteria—so buyers can compare options objectively, accelerate selection, and reduce risk.

Visit olive.app to explore more or run your own vendor evaluation.