Virtustream

Strengths: Virtustream differentiates itself with application-specific expertise. The platform is purpose-built for high availability, performance, security, governance and demanding SLA requirements.

"Virtustream has weathered the challenges of being acquired twice within a short period of time and is thriving under Dell, its new host. It has continued to successfully win large-scale enterprise deals, particularly those focused on SAP and that require managed service capabilities," said Gartner

Cautions: Customers should expect Virtustream to continue to focus on core strengths, rather than expanding into the broader cloud IaaS market, according to Gartner.

Gartner also noted the company's road map now "is inextricably tied into other Dell entities, such as VMware, EMC and Pivotal, which each have their own sets of differing, and possibly competing, priorities."

Virtustream is capable of supporting self-service deployments. But customers hosting complex applications should seek professional services for implementation, and ongoing managed services.