Oracle

Strengths: Oracle's Gen 2, which ultimately will support the software giant's SaaS and PaaS products, "is being built by a highly experienced engineering team recruited primarily from hyperscale cloud providers," said Gartner

It includes a "thoughtful selection of current and future features" and the hyper-scale architecture is well-designed, according to the research firm.

Despite the late entry into the market, "Oracle has a realistic perspective" and "a sensible engineering roadmap focused on building a set of core capabilities that will eventually make it attractive for targeted use cases," Gartner said

Oracle also has a powerful anchor --  the Oracle Database.

Cautions: The Gen 2 offering currently delivers only the most "vitally necessary cloud IaaS compute, storage and networking capabilities." And with its limited operational track record, most customers are dependent on direct support from Oracle's engineering team, according to Gartner.

That means customers should have a high tolerance for risk, as well as strong technical acumen, the research firm said.

Oracle has just begun to build a partner ecosystem.

Gartner warns potential customers to be cautious of high-pressure sales tactics.