Cloud computing has made leaps and bounds in technological advancements in the last few years. Today, choosing cloud services is no longer a question; instead, which cloud platform best fits your needs?

Although many cloud providers are on the market, Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud Platform stand out as the top three.

What platform to choose among Azure vs AWS vs Google Cloud? What factors to consider?

The big Microsoft Azure vs. Amazon AWS vs. Google Cloud debate is over. We've got answers to all these questions in this blog, so let's get started.

What is Cloud Computing?

We need more computing power as our needs grow. More processing power, RAM, faster disk storage, and an improved hardware stack enable immediate responses. The concept of cloud computing involves providing on-demand services through the internet, such as processing power and app storage.

Cloud-based services can be accessed and utilized by businesses over the internet on a pay-per-use basis. By renting cloud-based services from a third party, businesses can avoid investing in and incurring upfront costs for computing equipment. Service providers are scaling up because they can offer comparable services to clients.

Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are rapidly growing to compete with Amazon Web Services (AWS). Regarding storage and services, AWS currently leads the industry. Particularly Azure, with its focus on enterprises, is chasing after AWS. While open-source programs and third-party companies integrate with Google, its reach continues to expand.

An Overview of AWS, Azure, & Google Cloud

Amazon Web Services

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is a subsidiary of Amazon, delivering a pay-per-usage cloud computing service to individuals, businesses, and governments. Amazon Web Services, a company with decades of experience, dominate cloud computing. It has established a more extensive user base and greater trust and reliability due to its past as one of the oldest cloud providers.

Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) was Amazon's first public cloud service offering, followed by S3 in 2006. AWS Cloud Computing Service's Elastic Block Store (EBS) and Content Delivery Network (CDN) were released in 2009, and Amazon CloudFront soon followed.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure launched the Microsoft Azure Cloud Computing platform for companies in 2010 under the name Azure. Although the word 'Azure' is still commonly used to refer to the cloud computing program, it was renamed 'Microsoft Azure' in 2014. Microsoft Azure has shown significant progress since its inception compared to its competitors.

With Microsoft Azure, enterprises can quickly move to a cloud environment or hybrid cloud customized specifically for Microsoft-centric businesses. Businesses can also access Azure for services unrelated to Windows. Aside from supporting open-source platforms, programming, and technologies, anyone can create and maintain any program on this cloud computing platform.

Google Cloud Platform

The Google Cloud Platform (GCP) is an array of cloud computing services based on the same infrastructure used internally by Google to power its end-user products, including the Google Search engine and YouTube.

In less than a decade, Google Cloud Platform has established a hold in the cloud industry. Google Cloud Platform was initially designed to bolster Google Search and YouTube - two of the company's most popular products. Today, the Google Cloud Platform allows anyone to use the same infrastructure as Google Search and YouTube. This makes it possible for developers to create products and services on par with Google's offerings.

Market Shares and Growth Rate

Amazon Web Services had already started making headlines as the undisputed champion of the cloud space just after Google launched its cloud offering two years later (in 2008). Since then, Amazon Web Services has been phenomenal in all sectors.

According to Synergy Research Group's report, AWS's market share has remained at around 33% for the past twelve quarters.

The Microsoft Azure cloud platform was designed to compete with Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud. When Microsoft Azure began in 2010, it surpassed Google Cloud's market share. Microsoft adds a new feature to the Azure platform every few months.

According to the study, the Synergy Research Group reported that Amazon has 34% of the market, Microsoft Azure has 14%, IBM has 7%, and Google has just 6%.

AWS Vs Azure Vs Google Cloud Services Comparison

The following is a comparison of the services of Amazon Web Services, Azure Cloud, and Google Cloud, which includes cloud computing, storage technology, development tools, hybrid options, etc.

1. Cloud Computing

Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) is Amazon's premier computing service. The service is highly flexible and can be cheaper than other services due to its compatibility with Amazon Web Services. With EC2's auto-scaling monitor, you only pay for what you use when it comes to computing power for cloud applications. The monitor automatically scales up or down according to the current requirements.

In AWS, the container service is called Amazon Elastic Container Service. Users can configure Docker containers to meet specific needs or use preconfigured settings to block IP addresses, access logs, templates, and IAM roles.

The AWS cloud offers Kubernetes container services (EKS) in addition to computing features:

Amazon Lightsail.
VMware Cloud for AWS.
AWS Batch.
Amazon EC2 Auto-Scaling.
AWS Fargate.
AWS Serverless Application Repository.
Amazon Elastic Container Registry.
Amazon EC2.
Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service.
AWS Outposts.
AWS Lambda.
AWS Beanstalk.
Elastic Load Balancing.

While Azure boasts open-source cloud platforms based on virtual machines, complete computing services include application development and deployment, pre-deployment testing, extensions, etc., used with Windows or Linux servers, including SAP and Oracle. If the needs are diverse, cloud hosting and on-site private computing are available with Azure's hybrid option.

Microsoft says it simplifies work for organizations with multiple teams. It offers other services such as:

Azure IaaS.
Service Fabric.
Azure PaaS.
Azure Spring Cloud.
Azure Batch.
Azure Functions.

The Google Compute Engine (GCE) offered by Google might not be as feature-rich as its competitors - especially Amazon Web Services, which has had a few years' head-start. However, it has many advantages that may prove helpful as it catches up to its competitors. Cloud Functions allow users to deploy cloud applications and integrate code from other Google services. Currently, Google only pays for code deployed when it is used.

The Kubernetes-based services supported on the GCE platform are KKE (akin to EKS or AKS) and Knative.

2. Storage Technologies

Simple Storage Service (S3) and Elastic Block System (EBS) are two Amazon cloud storage options. Alternatively, Amazon's Storage Gateway supports local caching and cloud storage for a hybrid cloud solution. If an organization's data storage requirements exceed the average, AWS Elastic File Storage can be expanded to meet the needs.

The ElastiCache in-memory data store provides low-latency access to data as the needs dictate. To help ease moving to AWS, AWS offers SQL-assisted databases and a data migration service.

Azure's cloud storage services are designed to accommodate the needs of all types of businesses, similar to AWS. Azure offers various storage types, each suited to different types of data so that organizations can find the best option. For larger organizations with high data storage requirements, Azure Queue Storage and Azure Data Lake Storage are viable options. A blob storage solution is ideal for organizations that store unstructured data in large quantities. At the same time, file storage is a reliable, cost-effective solution that meets most business needs.

With Azure, one can create multiple SQL-based databases spanning three different formats, along with traditional storage. In addition, Azure's hybrid approach is even more intriguing - Server Stretch is a database that allows entities to use Microsoft SQL Server on-premises and cloud-based data storage. Azure is the only cloud provider to offer a backup recovery system, which is welcome in addition to the standard system backup.

Other than cloud and persistent disk storage, Google's storage options are relatively basic, unlike the other two services. As GCP offers both SQL and no-SQL databases, what is available is reliable and comprehensive. With the introduction of Google and in-house transfer services, online transfer services are expanding. Coldline backup is offered by Google for rarely accessed data, while Nearline backup is for seldom accessed data.

3. Development Tools

Cloud providers are currently in a state of competition with one another. All three providers, AWS, Azure, and GCP, offer various tools and services to meet the latest trends and customer demands. Some key insights and tools that the big three providers offer are as follows:

AWS Tools:

Using SageMaker, enterprises can train staff and execute machine learning using AI and the Internet of Things (IoT). Users can deploy apps straight from their serverless repository and access Lambda's serverless computing environment. We can also integrate various IoT enterprise solutions with AWS for additional customization.

Azure Tools:

Azure Tools includes Artificial Intelligence Enhancement and Cognitive Services. API-based Cognitive Services allow Microsoft software and business applications to be integrated on-premises. Azure functions, driven by events, are orchestrated and managed by serverless solutions. As far as IoT is concerned, Microsoft offers Edge, which can be used for analytics and administration.

Google Tools:

Cloud-based enterprise features help businesses to stay connected and collaborate globally. These features include machine learning app development, natural language translation, and voice. Several open-source libraries, including TensorFlow, are available to develop IoT and serverless systems. These libraries can benefit those looking to get started with these technologies, as Google is still developing its own IoT and serverless offerings.

4. Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Options

In recent years, hyper-scale public cloud providers have focused on helping customers manage hybrid and multi-cloud environments. Customers often face challenges if they need to manage applications on-premises and deploy across multiple vendors' infrastructure. Various solutions have been developed to help these customers. These solutions are designed to make deploying and managing applications across multiple clouds easier.

At the re:Invent conference in 2018, Amazon announced Outposts - preconfigured racks that users can operate on-premises. AWS services can be run as if they were in an Amazon data center. This move signals Amazon's first serious foray into hybrid deployments, allowing customers to use AWS services more flexibly.

AWS Hybrid Options:

Amazon EKS Anywhere.
AWS Snowball.
AWS Outposts.
AWS Snowcone.
AWS Local Zones.
AWS Wavelength.
VMware Cloud on AWS.
Amazon ECS Anywhere.

Azure Stack is Microsoft's hybrid deployment solution for deploying Azure public cloud services from a local data center. It includes hardware, software, a shared management portal, code, and APIs. Azure Stack is an excellent solution for businesses that want the benefits of the public cloud but need to keep some data on-premises.

Azure Hybrid Options:

Azure Backup.
Azure Security Center.
Azure Arc.
Azure Stack.
Azure Active Directory.
Azure Blob Storage.
Azure Centinel.

Its Anthos hybrid cloud platform, which combines existing Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE), GKE On-Prem, and the Anthos Config Management console, is effectively rebranding the Google Cloud Services platform. The rebranding will bring together the existing Google Cloud Services platform and Google Cloud Services, making it easier to administer, manage, and secure hybrid Kubernetes deployments.

Google Cloud Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Options:

Looker.
Anthos.
Cloud Build.
Traffic Director.
Cloud Run for Anthos.
Operations.

5. Pricing Comparison

Many factors influence a cloud platform's prices, such as the customer's requirements, usage, and services used. There are competitive pricing plans on all three platforms, with additional cost management options available to all users, such as reserved instances, budgets, and resource optimization options. The following are a few quick comparisons:

AWS	Azure	GCP
AWS charges around US$69 per month, for instance, with 2 virtual CPUs and 8 GB of RAM. AWS offers up to 384 TB of RAM and 128 virtual CPUs for US$3.97 per hour in its most notable instance.	The cost of an Azure instance with two vCPUs and 8 GB of RAM is approximately US$70/month. As of now, Azure offers models with RAM and CPUs up to 3.89 TB. The hourly rate is around US$6.79.	Compared to Amazon Web Services, GCP offers a 25 percent cheaper instance containing 2 virtual CPUs and 8GB of RAM. The monthly cost is around US$52. In terms of RAM and CPUs, GCP's largest model includes 3.75 TB and 160 vCPUs at an hourly rate of US$5.32.

Is There A Better Option? Multi-Cloud Solution

Amazon Web Services (AWS) indeed dominates the cloud services and storage market, but Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud are quickly catching up.

AWS is facing stiff competition from Azure, particularly with its focus on enterprise customers. In the meantime, Google continues to expand its reach through integrations with open-source programs and third-party companies.

Currently, AWS continues to set a benchmark for capabilities and stability. It remains the undisputed market leader in terms of quality, features, and security. Microsoft Azure is more expensive than other options for general-purpose instances. However, Microsoft Azure is the most cost-effective to compute optimized instances. It offers an extensive range of business-friendly features for organizations on a tight budget, making it an attractive choice.

Finally, it's all about the unique use case when you choose among azure vs aws vs google cloud. A multi-cloud solution has become increasingly popular as the industry matures, allowing businesses to benefit from every cloud service without being stuck to a single provider.

Why Choose SoluteLabs for your Cloud Computing needs?

SoluteLabs provides the best cloud services that help businesses modernize their IT environments. Our experienced team offers cost effective and reliable consulting, professional services, and managed service offerings to give businesses an edge over the competition. By helping businesses adopt cloud technology, we help them stay agile and responsive to the ever-changing market landscape.

Organizations can use our cloud services to improve productivity and lower IT resource costs.

Schedule a meeting with our experts, you can learn more about our services and maximize your return on investment.

AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud - Choose for your Enterprise