Website launched to monitor cloud computing suppliers

A service has been launched to monitor the performance of specialist cloud computing suppliers and compare them against the financial performances of more traditional IT providers.

Dubbed Cloudaq, the website was created by finance firm Clearwater Corporate Finance, which specialises in technology mergers and acquisitions and investments. The site will monitor and report on the top 30 global cloud technology businesses operating in software, services, hardware and infrastructure. Companies listed on Cloudaq include: Akamai Technologies, Citrix Systems, Concur Technologies, NetSuite, Salesforce.Com and VMware.

The website is aimed at investors but also sheds light on which companies in the cloud sector are performing well, which gives confidence to IT departments. It compares itself against the Nasdaq and Techmark listings.

“Since we started to measure this index on 1 January 2010, Cloudaq has outperformed both the Nasdaq and Techmark indices, with the market recognising that cloud-based propositions hold the greater promise. Since the markets faltered and the recovery stalled we have seen Cloudaq follow the trend of wider technology stocks but maintained at a higher level,” says the Cloudaq website.
 
“Our hypothesis at Cloudaq is that over time the gap between Cloudaq and the wider indices will close as cloud computing increases its penetration into that wider population of technology companies. The efficiency and improvements brought over time by SaaS [software as a service], VOIP [voice over IP], virtualisation and other manifestations of cloud computing will see technology stocks generally outperform other sectors as this revolutionary period unfolds.”

Carl Houghton, partner at Clearwater Corporate Finance, said the website will focus on the big listed cloud suppliers because there is information on financial performance available to measure, but he expects to look at the wider cloud industry over time.