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ISG Research is happy to share insights gleaned from our latest Buyers Guide, an assessment of how well software providers’ offerings meet buyers’ requirements. The Private Cloud Platforms: ISG Research Buyers Guide is the distillation of a year of market and product research by ISG Research.
Private Cloud platforms represent an approach tailored to meet stringent regulatory demands while prioritizing 
security and compliance. The advent of public cloud infrastructure introduced new concepts, including elasticity and isolated virtual private clouds (VPCs) that are also valuable in dedicated environments. Offering exclusive control over data and applications, this model empowers IT leaders to implement sophisticated security protocols without sacrificing performance. Whether hosted on-premises or through a trusted third-party vendor, the Private Cloud allows for customized configurations that align with an enterprise’s specific needs. As data privacy regulations become increasingly complex, businesses that make use of Private Cloud solutions can confidently navigate compliance challenges while supporting an atmosphere of trust and security.
ISG Research defines Private Cloud as a cloud environment dedicated exclusively to one enterprise, ensuring enhanced control over data and applications. This model emphasizes security, privacy and compliance, catering specifically to enterprises with strict regulatory requirements. The Private Cloud offers a customizable environment where businesses can implement tailored applications, allowing IT leaders to exercise greater control over security protocols and governance.
This cloud model is particularly relevant for industries such as finance, healthcare and government, where data security and compliance with regulations like HIPAA and GDPR are non-negotiable. Large enterprises that manage sensitive customer data or proprietary information often invest in Private Cloud platforms to maintain privacy and mitigate risks. By utilizing Private Cloud environments, enterprises can streamline operations while ensuring the infrastructure adheres to rigorous compliance standards, reinforcing a commitment to safeguarding sensitive information.
The concept of the Private Cloud emerged in response to enterprise demands for greater control and security in the IT infrastructure, particularly in the wake of rising data compliance concerns. Enterprises began investing in virtualization technologies in the mid-2000s, leading to a more efficient utilization of on-premises hardware and allowing the creation of internal cloud environments. Solutions from providers like VMware and Dell EMC helped catalyze this transformation, enabling IT departments to offer cloud-like services internally.
ISG asserts that through 2028, 9 in 10 enterprises will repatriate workloads from public cloud to private cloud or on-premises systems to contain costs and optimize performance.
Over time, the Private Cloud evolved from being a simple virtualization application to a sophisticated environment that emphasizes automation, orchestration and resource optimization. This focus has expanded to encompass hybrid models that integrate Private Cloud solutions with other cloud environments. Today, the Private Cloud is critical for enterprises that prioritize data sovereignty, security and flexibility, allowing organizations to adapt to evolving market conditions while maintaining control over technological assets.
When considering Private Cloud options, enterprises must address unique security, compliance, and regulatory needs to ensure the infrastructure aligns with organizational goals. A decisive factor is the structure of the Private Cloud environment, whether it will be hosted on-premises or through a trusted third-party provider. This decision often hinges on the local data governance requirements and the scalability of the solution to accommodate future growth.
Enterprises should also evaluate the technical architecture and management capabilities of the Private Cloud software. This entails assessing the flexibility of the platform to integrate with existing systems, including legacy applications, and the resources required for ongoing maintenance and support. It’s essential to involve key stakeholders from IT, InfoSec, compliance and business units in the decision-making process to ensure that the chosen Private Cloud application meets operational and regulatory needs while providing a secure and efficient environment.
Private Cloud software must offer unparalleled security and compliance features to be deemed successful within enterprise contexts. This often involves implementing advanced data protection mechanisms, robust access controls and customization options to align with specific industry regulations. Enterprises that adopt Private Cloud solutions need assurance that sensitive data is handled within a secure, private environment that can be finely tuned to meet internal security policies and regulatory requirements.
Successful Private Cloud platforms should also provide flexibility to scale resources as organizational needs change, ensuring that businesses can expand capabilities without shifting to a different infrastructure model. User-friendly management tools that enable efficient resource allocation, monitoring and reporting will also be crucial, allowing IT teams to manage the cloud environment effectively. Finally, capabilities for interconnecting with Public Cloud services are increasingly important, as enterprises look to create hybrid models to optimize workloads across both environments while maintaining control and oversight.
Generative AI (GenAI) is being employed within Private Cloud environments, primarily for data-driven decision-making, research and development simulations and compliance automation. Enterprises can utilize GenAI on their Private Clouds to securely analyze proprietary data and derive insights that guide strategic business initiatives. Enterprises involved in sectors such as pharmaceuticals and engineering employ AI-driven simulations to optimize product designs and speed up development cycles while adhering to strict regulatory standards. And Private Cloud solutions enable automated compliance reporting by generating comprehensive reports based on regulatory requirements, ensuring that enterprises can maintain compliance without extensive manual intervention.
Within Private Cloud settings, a compelling use case for agentic AI technology is in regulatory compliance automation. Enterprises can develop AI systems that autonomously monitor, analyze and interpret changes in regulations relevant to the industry, documentation and operational practices. By automating the compliance process, enterprises can reduce the burden of manual tracking and assessment, ensuring compliance with constantly evolving legal frameworks. Agentic AI could be utilized in advanced security monitoring systems, proactively identifying vulnerabilities and threats within the Private Cloud, enabling enterprises to respond swiftly to potential security incidents before they escalate.
When selecting software providers for Private Cloud applications, enterprises must prioritize security, compliance and customization options tailored to the organization’s specific needs. It is crucial to conduct comprehensive evaluations of providers that clearly demonstrate the ability to maintain data privacy and meet industry-specific regulatory requirements. Furthermore, enterprises should assess the scalability of the solutions to ensure they can adapt to future growth and changing business requirements. Engaging key stakeholders from IT, compliance and operations in the decision-making process will help ensure that the Private Cloud infrastructure aligns with overall business objectives while fostering an agile and secure operational environment.
The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Private Cloud evaluates software providers and products in key areas. The evaluation encompasses aspects such as IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, Private Cloud, AI/ML-as-a-Service, Compute-as-a-Service, Data Platform-as-a-Service, Function-as-a-Service, Networking-as-a-Service, Storage-as-a-Service, Cloud Application Marketplace, GenAI and agentic AI, Global Reach and investment in capabilities. It also reviews the management tools available for monitoring and controlling the Private Cloud environment. By shining a light on these critical elements, the guide helps enterprises select software that not only meets immediate requirements but also supports long-term growth and security needs.
This research evaluates the following 21 software providers offering products to address key elements of private cloud platforms as we define them: Alibaba Cloud, AWS, Baidu AI Cloud, Broadcom, China Unicom, CloudFerro, Euskaltel, Google Cloud, Hetzner Cloud, IBM, IONOS, Kingsoft, Leaseweb, Microsoft, OpenNebula, Oracle, OVHcloud, Scaleway, Schwarz Digits, T-Systems and Vultr.
This research-based index evaluates the full business and information technology value of private cloud platforms software offerings. We encourage you to learn more about our Buyers Guide and its effectiveness as a provider selection and RFI/RFP tool.
We urge organizations to do a thorough job of evaluating private cloud platforms offerings in this Buyers Guide as both the results of our in-depth analysis of these software providers and as an evaluation methodology. The Buyers Guide can be used to evaluate existing suppliers, plus provides evaluation criteria for new projects. Using it can shorten the cycle time for an RFP and the definition of an RFI.
The Buyers Guide for Private Cloud Platforms in 2025 finds Microsoft first on the list, followed by Google Cloud and Oracle.
Software providers that rated in the top three of any category ﹘ including the product and customer experience dimensions ﹘ earn the designation of Leader.
The Leaders in Product Experience are:
- Google Cloud.
- Microsoft.
- AWS.
The Leaders in Customer Experience are:
- Oracle.
- AWS.
- Google Cloud.
The Leaders across any of the seven categories are:
- Oracle, which has achieved this rating in six of the seven categories.
- Google Cloud in five categories.
- AWS in four categories.
- IBM and Microsoft in three categories.
The overall performance chart provides a visual representation of how providers rate across product and customer experience. Software providers with products scoring higher in a weighted rating of the five product experience categories place farther to the right. The combination of ratings for the two customer experience categories determines their placement on the vertical axis. As a result, providers that place closer to the upper-right are “exemplary” and rated higher than those closer to the lower-left and identified as providers of “merit.” Software providers that excelled at customer experience over product experience have an “assurance” rating, and those excelling instead in product experience have an “innovative” rating.
Note that close provider scores should not be taken to imply that the packages evaluated are functionally identical or equally well-suited for use by every enterprise or process. Although there is a high degree of commonality in how organizations handle private cloud platforms, there are many idiosyncrasies and differences that can make one provider’s offering a better fit than another.
ISG Research has made every effort to encompass in this Buyers Guide the overall product and customer experience from our private cloud platforms blueprint, which we believe reflects what a well-crafted RFP should contain. Even so, there may be additional areas that affect which software provider and products best fit an enterprise’s particular requirements. Therefore, while this research is complete as it stands, utilizing it in your own organizational context is critical to ensure that products deliver the highest level of support for your projects.
You can find more details on our community as well as on our expertise in the research for this Buyers Guide.
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