Everyone in IT seems to be getting into the business of cloud computing in one way or another. To help companies sort through the dizzying array of cloud service and equipment providers, IT consulting firm BTC Logic prepared a report ranking the leading vendors in seven categories. 

BTC Logic looked at more than 600 vendors providing cloud-based products and services, and examined how (in the consultants' view) the offerings meet the needs of enterprises today. The firm ranked Amazon and IBM (NYSE: IBM) at the head of the pack overall, but it positioned Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO), Google (NASDAQ: GOOG), Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT), Red Hat and VMWare close behind.

The categories defined for the report are: Applications, platform, infrastructure, foundation, network services, security and management. IBM is among the top 10 vendors in six of the seven categories, and Amazon in the top 10 in four of the categories, according to the report.

In previous reports ranking cloud vendors, the firm did not look at the security and management sectors. While Amazon ranks high when it comes to management, it is nowhere to be found in the top 10 list for security. EMC/RSA is the number one provider in cloud security, and other heavyweights in the category include Symantec, IBM, Sonoa Systems and Cisco, according to BTC Logic.

For more:
- see BTC Logic's report on cloud vendors

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