IBM and Salesforce; Microsoft and Box; AWS and VMWare – all of these are examples of companies which are teaming up together as part of a cloud alliance. In a pre-cloud world, many companies followed a "do it ourselves" policy, and viewed others as competitors. However, as the popularity of cloud rockets, many tech companies are taking a different approach, and are joining up with others and forming cloud alliances.

In this IDC podcast, Hannah Breeze, senior research manager for Channels and Alliances, explores why this is happening and what the industry stands to gain from it, as well highlights some key examples of the trend.