Microsoft cloud becomes Enterprise Cloud preferred--71% It buyers choose Microsoft Cloud

The investor.com website quotes Cowen & Co. A recent survey shows that cloud computing has been the top priority in the fourth quarter of 2014 for corporate informatization spending.

In the fourth quarter of 2014, 24% of companies said that Internet cloud computing had a high priority in their spending, compared with 21% in the second quarter, according to Cowen's report.

Cowen's report points out that Microsoft is likely to be the prime beneficiary of an increase in corporate cloud computing spending. When asked about which public cloud/hybrid cloud service to use in the next 12-18 months, 71% of it buyers chose Microsoft. This number was 68% in the fourth quarter of 2013.

According to Cowen's report, the Citrix Bae and Cisco Systems (Cisco BAE) are tied second, each accounting for 33%. VMware ranked third, 30%, followed by Red Hat (26%), Rackspace (26%), Google (24%) and Amazon (17%).

Microsoft also takes the lead in the choice of cloud operating systems that companies are using or planning to use for their cloud platforms in the coming year. Microsoft ranked first in 71%, with HP Eucalyptus second in 51%.

Other options for the enterprise's internal cloud platform include Open source Cloudstack (33%), VMware (29%), and open source OpenStack (22%).