Linode has released surprising results of a survey designed to assess whether developers trust third-party cloud providers. ClearPath Strategies’ latest cloud survey revealed that while developers’ familiarity and comfort with Amazon, Microsoft, and Google positions the well-known providers as market frontrunners, developers often do not agree with their values.

The study found that although SMB developers voice trust in their provider of choice in general, a deeper examination of their values uncovers a trust issue when it comes to major cloud providers.

The survey revealed that trust plays an important role in developers’ choice of a cloud hosting provider but needs take precedence. When prioritizing needs or values, developers report they prioritize needs over values 73% of the time.

The Top 3 reasons cited for developers’ preference of their chosen third-party cloud provider: security; trust; and quality of service.

Survey respondents indicated hyperscale and alternative cloud providers deliver equally effective performance and security.

“Approximately 20% of developers believe that the Big 3 hyperscalers will engage in behaviors that include leveraging their brands to stifle competition, focusing on shareholders more than customer needs, hosting or working with customers that developers find morally objectionable, monetizing user data for their own use, and locking them in with proprietary tools,” said Stephanie Fairchild, senior analyst at ClearPath Strategies.

“Criteria such as security and performance clearly take priority over these trust issues for developers, but it’s interesting to note that a sizable portion of developers are thinking about how their values align with those of their service providers,” Fairchild added.