What Are Industry Cloud Platforms?

Vertical cloud platforms combine software, platform and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) capabilities to provide specific solutions for different vertical industries. These industry solutions are mostly based on public cloud services but offer industry players a more agile way to manage workloads and accelerate change against the particular business, data, compliance or other needs of their segment. 

“In effect, industry cloud platforms (ICPs) turn a cloud platform into a business platform, enabling an existing technology innovation tool to also serve as a business innovation tool,” says Gregor Petri, VP Analyst at Gartner. “They do so not as predefined, one-off, vertical SaaS solutions, but rather as modular, composable platforms supported by a catalog of industry-specific packaged business capabilities.”

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In a recent Gartner survey of North America- and Europe-based enterprises, close to 39% of respondents said they had started the adoption of industry cloud platforms, with another 14% in pilots. Another approximately 17% are considering deployment by 2026. Overall, a majority of the respondents familiar with the concept of industry cloud platforms identified themselves as adopters or potential considerers of industry-specific cloud platforms.

Gartner expects that by 2027, more than 70% of enterprises will use industry cloud platforms to accelerate their business initiatives, up from less than 15% in 2023.

Industry cloud platforms are a notable emerging trend, because they create value for companies by offering adaptable and relevant industry solutions. They significantly accelerate cloud adoption by pointedly appealing to business consumers beyond the early users of cloud infrastructure and platform technologies. ICPs combine underlying software as a service (SaaS), platform as a service (PaaS) and infrastructure as a service (IaaS) with a set of innovative technologies and approaches.

Industry cloud platforms also enable enterprises to rapidly adapt their processes and applications. Their modular and composable approach makes it easier for partners to deliver value-added capabilities through marketplaces and app stores. This greater richness of industry cloud ecosystems, with multiple independent software vendors and system integrators joining the cloud providers, is a key way that industry cloud platforms add value. Such a holistic but modular approach also makes it possible to more easily and quickly bring technical and business innovations from one industry to another.

Unlike community clouds, such as GovCloud, industry clouds are neither a copy nor a split-off version of cloud that needs to be maintained separately; they offer the full set of industry-relevant capabilities of the underlying platform to users.

Industry cloud platforms use innovative technologies and approaches, such as packaged business capabilities, industry-aware data fabrics and composable tooling to go beyond traditional cloud and create added value. ICPs turn a cloud platform into a business platform while also expanding a technology innovation tool into a business innovation tool.

To reach their full potential, industry clouds will need to evolve into something best described as ecosystem clouds. Enterprises can leverage these ecosystems by participating in shared (business) processes, such as procurement, distribution, payment procession, and maybe even R&D and innovation. But to capture this value, enterprise use of industry cloud platforms requires a broad set of stakeholders both in IT and the line-of-business organization to use them.

Gregor Petri is a VP Analyst on the Research and Advisory team at Gartner. Presenting perspectives on the impact of technological innovations, formulating industry strategies for cloud and edge scenarios, and helping organizations plan and prepare for continuous technical transition are important parts of his research activities.