The competition in cloud computing has mostly been addressed among AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Choosing a cloud service provider is more complicated, users prefer the cheap one, but actually, there are many factors to be considered. In this article, we will discuss the various factors of these three cloud computing giants: Amazon Web Services(AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).
Before going to their differences, let’s look at the definitions of each cloud service provider.
Amazon Web Services (AWS):
AWS is a comprehensive cloud computing platform that offers reliable, scalable, and flexible cloud solutions. Amazon launched it with the combination of IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service), SaaS (Software as a Service) and PaaS (Platform as a Service) offerings.
Microsoft Azure:
Azure is a flexible cloud computing platform which helps in data storage, service management, and service hosting. Microsoft launched it in the year 2010. Microsoft Azure can host web applications with Microsoft data centers over the internet.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP):
GCP is a secured cloud computing platform that was launched by Google in the year 2011. It helps a business to thrive with flexible cloud services on an as-you-go basis. It also leverages the resources to empower web applications.
Now move into the differences among each cloud provider based on various services.
AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud Platform: Database & Storage Services
Database services are directly proportional to database workloads. Database services accessed through a web interface or Vendor’s API. Storage services manage the customer’s data which is accessible over a network. In storage services, the data can be stored on a remote storage system. Let’s look upon the differences in Database and Storage services for these three cloud computing giants.
| Database Services | AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Object Storage | S3 | Blobs and Files | Cloud Storage block |
| Block Storage | EBS | Page Blobs | Persistent Disks |
| Caching | Elastic Cache | Redis Cache | Cloud CDN |
| Key Value – NoSQL | DynamoDB | Table Storage | Cloud Bigtable |
| Indexed NoSQL | DynamoDB | CosmosDB | Cloud Datastore |
| Data Warehouse | Red Shift | SQL | – |
| Relational Database-as-a-Service | RDS | SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL | Cloud Spanner, Cloud SQL |
| Storage Services | AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Persistent Disk | Amazon EBS | Hard Disk Drive/Solid State Drive (HDD/SSD) | Hard Disk Drive/Solid State Drive (HDD/SSD) |
| Object Storage | Amazon S3 | Blob Storage | Cloud Storage |
| File Storage | Amazon EFS | Microsoft Azure Files | Cloud Filestore |
| Data Transfer | Amazon Snowball | Microsoft Azure Import/Export Service | Storage Transfer Service |
| Cold Storage | Glacier | Long-Term Storage | Coldline and Nearline |
AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud platform: Network Services
The Network for every cloud service provider is different, for Amazon Web Services and Azure the network is Virtual Private cloud, whereas for Google cloud it is a subnet.
| Network Services | AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Global Content Delivery Network | CloudFront | Content Delivery Network | Cloud Interconnect/td> |
| Load Balancing Configuration | Elastic Load Balancing | Load Balancer Application Gateway | Cloud Load Balancing |
| Cross-Premises Connectivity | API Gateway | VPN Gateway | Cloud VPN |
| Manage DNS Name and Records | Route 53 | Traffic Manager Azure | Google Cloud DNS |
| Dedicated Private Network Connection | Direct Connect | Express Route/td> | – |
| Virtual Networking | Virtual Private Cloud | Virtual Network | Subnet |
AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud Platform: Pricing & Models
| Parameter | AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Per hour – Rounded up | Per minute – Rounded up | Per minute – Rounded up (minimum 10 minutes) |
| Models | On-demand, spot and reserved | On-demand – Short term commitments | On-demand – Sustained used |
AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud platform: Management and Monitoring
| Management and Monitoring | AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cloud Advisor Capabilities | Cloudwatch X-Ray Management Console | Portal Monitor Application Insights | Stackdriver Monitoring, CloudShell, Error Reporting, Trace |
| Administration | Application Discovery Service
Personal Health Dashboard System Manager |
Operations Management Suite
Log Analytics Storage Explorer Resource Health |
Cloud Console |
| DevOps Deployment Orchestration | OpsWorks Cloud Formation | Automation VM Extensions Resource Manager |
Cloud Deployment Manager |
| Billing | Billing API | Billing API | Cloud Billing API |
| Cloud Resources Management and Monitoring | Trusted Advisor | Advisor | Cloud Platform Security |
AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud Platform: Deployment Tools
| Deployment Tools | AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| App Testing | Device Farm | DevTest Labs | Cloud Test Labs |
| Media Transcoding | Elastic Transcoder | Media Services | – |
| DevOps | Code Build | Visual Studio Team Services | – |
| GIT Repositories | AWS Source Repositories | Azure Source Repositories | Cloud Source Repositories |
| Developer Tools | Amazon Developer tools | Azure Developer tools | – |
Pros and Cons of AWS:
- Pros: The biggest strength of AWS is its cloud market. Over the past thirteen years, AWS is the leader in Cloud IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) which has a huge array of available services. AWS is an enterprise-ready provider with governing capabilities and resources.
- Cons: The biggest weakness of AWS is its cost and data access. AWS lowered its price more than seventy times in the last few years, which means AWS initially had a high cost in the beginning. While running substantial workload services, enterprises also have a hard time in managing the cost factor.
Pros and Cons of Azure:
- Pros: Microsoft Azure came into the cloud market four years after AWS, but became more popular with its on-premise Windows server, SQL Server, .Net, Dynamic Active Directory, and SQL Server. In Azure cloud computing, many enterprises deploy both Microsoft and Windows software. Many companies use Microsoft software because Azure integrated tightly with other applications.
- Cons: The drawback of Microsoft Azure is its service experience which is not up to the mark. There are many issues in Azure with technical support, ISV partner ecosystem, training, and documentation.
Pros and Cons of Google Cloud:
- Pros: Google offers application container deployments on engineering expertise since it developed the Kubernetes application management standard. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) specializes in high-end compute offerings such as analytics, big data, and machine learning. It also provides data load balancing and scale-out options. Google knows the requirements of fast data centers.
- Cons: Google Cloud stands in third-place in the cloud market share because it has fewer services, features, and global data centers compared to AWS and Azure. Although GCP is a strategic alternative to AWS cloud, customers GCP as a secondary provider.
Conclusion:
In this blog, we’ve differentiated the Cloud Services: AWS, Azure, and Google in various terms like database services, storage services, network services, pricing models, management, monitoring, and deployment tools. You can get the best cloud computing service according to the requirements of your enterprise. Nowadays, there is massive competition among cloud services, that’s why they are introducing multiple extended services at less cost. So, it is the best time for the enterprise to take advantage of this competition. Still, you have any queries in differences among these cloud services, feel free to comment in the below section.
