Cisco held a stable market share over the course of 2017, while Microsoft's share gradually grew as the year progressed. Cisco held its lead over Microsoft by approximately a percentage point over the first three quarters, but tis fell to noticeably less than a percentage point in Q4. "Cisco and Microsoft clearly set themselves apart as large-scale vendors whose portfolios span multiple major segments of the market and whose activities span the globe. Cisco is a clear market leader in North America and APAC regions, while Microsoft has a lead in EMEA and Latin America," said Jeremy Duke, Synergy Research Group's founder and chief analyst. IBM and Avaya hold the third and fourth positions, which are quite a distance behind the two leaders. According to the findings Cisco's leadership has been thanks largely to its dominant position in premise-based solutions while also growing its revenues in hosted/cloud market segments.