Gartner ranks Azure Active Directory tops in “completeness of vision”

The Azure Active Directory team began the day in high spirits today thanks to Gartner Inc.’s recent report, and they were quick to let us know at the Server & Tools blog. In only its second year on the Magic Quadrant, Microsoft has already set a higher standard in the Leaders quadrant. With only two other companies by its side, Okta and Centrify, Microsoft was revered for the company’s ability to achieve completeness in its vision.

The Gartner Magic Quadrant is the result of a series of reports and marketing researchers published by the American research and advisory firm Gartner Inc. There are many different areas that companies are analyzed on, and position on the Magic Quadrant recognizes competitors in major technological markets that have stood out above the rest.

Through the research in a variety of specific markets, Gartner determines the positions of the companies on a range of visionary goals and the ability to execute said ideas. This is how the four quadrants are divided between Niche Players, Challengers, Visionaries, and the coveted Leader quadrant that balances having their heads in the clouds with actually executing their ideas in a tangible manner.

A Leader placement on the Gartner 2016 Magic Quadrant for Identity and Access Management as a Service is the specific result that Microsoft is celebrating thanks to Azure Active Directory. According to the blog post released today, Microsoft wasn’t only a Leader on the IDaaS quadrant. They also made marks on Server Virtualization, Application Platform as a Service, Cloud Storage Services, and across further data platform and productivity services.

Chalk it up as another win for Microsoft, who continues to bring innovative plans to reality through quality service provision. We’ll be interested to see how the company improves (or weakens) across the Gartner Magic Quadrants in next year’s report.