Google, Microsoft, and Amazon dominate the public cloud market, providing the most reliable, flexible, and secure cloud services. AWS, Azure, and GCP are their respective cloud platforms and offer clients a variety of storage, computing, and networking options.
Among the common features are instant provisioning and self-service, auto-scaling, as well as identity management, security, compliance, and identity management.
AWS is currently considered more mature than Azure and GCP in terms of both functionality and maturity.
The other two are moving at a faster pace to show their market dominance.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Amazon is a pioneer in cloud computing. It was the first company to enter the market for cloud services over ten years ago. AWS leads both in terms of the number of customers and products, and AWS is considered the standard for cloud service quality.
AWS offers a variety of Infrastructure as a Service offerings (IaaS), which can be divided into computing, database delivery, storage, and content delivery, as well as networking.
AWS allows for a seamless and flexible data collection process using serverless services like Amazon SQS Queues, Amazon Kinesis Streams, and AWS Lambda Functions. Organizations have the ability to select the web application platform, the database, and the programming languages they require.
Cloud infrastructure resource usage can easily be monitored with AWS management tools, such as AWS CloudTrail or Amazon CloudWatch to track user activity and AWS Config to manage the resource inventory and change.
AWS can significantly increase productivity and improve business growth. AWS has its limitations, such as the complexity of its infrastructure and default service limits that are adjusted to average user requirements.
Amazon data centers are the largest of the cloud providers, and they are located in 77 countries around the globe.
Become a certified Solutions Architect with this AWS training.
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft Azure platform is designed to allow you to build, deploy and manage various services and apps through the vast network of Microsoft-managed datacenters. Azure offers compute, networking, data management database, and performance.
Azure Site Recovery allows organizations of any size to manage site-to-site replication as well as data recovery to Azure VMs. Azure provides Zone Redundant Storage (ZRS), or data storage redundancy across multiple regions.
Azure ExpressRoute allows you to connect your data center to Azure via a private link without the Internet. This provides greater security, reliability, and lower latency.
Azure has extensive networking capabilities, including multiple site-to-site connections to virtual network networks. It also allows for the connection of virtual networks across regions. Learn more about Azure with this Azure certification training.
Azure offers the lowest instance prices and on-demand pricing. Azure Machine Learning Studio is available to specialist developers for the creation, testing, and deployment of algorithms.
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
GCP offers a more attractive alternative to AWS and Azure. It has an intuitive interface, lower prices, preemptible instances, and flexible compute options. Google employs full-scale encryption for all data and communication channels, including traffic between data centers.
Google Cloud is strong in some areas, including payment configuration, privacy and security, traffic security, cost efficiency, and Machine Learning.
All three cloud providers offer discounts of up to 75 percent for a commitment for one to three years. However, Google also offers a 30% discount for sustained use on instance types that are used for over 25 percent each month.
GCP credit has been added to AWS’s 1-year free trial. It is USD 300 for 12 months and includes a free tier that’s not time-limited. GCP’s credit model is better suited to organizations that are just starting out with cloud services.
Google provides several APIs that are available off-the-shelf for computer vision, natural translation processing, and other areas. Machine learning engineers can create models using Google’s Cloud Machine Learning Engine’s open-source TensorFlow deep learning library.
A three-way battle
You can see the differences among the major cloud services by comparing them with different parameters, such as storage, compute, location, documentation, and databases.
Battle of AWS and Azure
Compute: AWS provides the Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which manages all compute services. It has preconfigured settings but can be set up by users. Azure provides Virtual Machines and Virtual Machine Scale Sets, while GCP offers the Google Compute Engine(GCE), which performs the exact same functions.
Storage: Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service) is the best storage option. It has extensive documentation, tested technology and proper community support. Reliable storage services are also offered by Google Cloud Storage and Microsoft Azure Storage.
All major service providers offer a variety of tools and services for databases. Amazon’s Relational Database Service, (RDS), supports major databases like Oracle and PostgreSQL. It manages everything from updates to patching. Azure SQL database provides SQL database handling capabilities for Azure while it is Cloud SQL to GCP.
GCP, Azure, and AWS offer excellent coverage around the globe and provide the best application performance by providing the shortest route to the intended customers. Amazon has 77 availability areas, Azure has 60+ regions, and Google has 33 countries. Newer regions are being added all the time.
Documentation: Although all three vendors offer high quality documentation, AWS is slightly better than Azure and GCP.
AWS Vs Azure Vs Google Cloud: The Key Takeaways
These cloud providers are all unique and offer different options for customers.
If we look closely at the figures, it is clear that AWS has secured a maximum footprint in this cloud battle between Azure vs AWS and GCP. Although AWS is clearly ahead of the curve, it is not clear how long AWS will enjoy the lead.
Azure takes advantage of the fact that it is simple to integrate MS tools into the Azure cloud. Azure makes it easy for organizations to use MS tools.
GCP can help customers with cost concerns by offering the most competitive pricing models.
AWS, Azure, and GCP: Market Shares & Growth Rate
AWS has been the dominant cloud computing company since the dawn of Cloud computing. AWS holds around 32 percent global market share. Microsoft Azure is following AWS with 19% of the global market share.
GCP, with a global market share 10 percent, is third.
Cloud Market Share:
AWS – 32%
Microsoft Azure – 19%
GCP – 7.7%
The Selection Dilemma
The Big Three are the only ones who can win the cloud war. Although there are many other players, such as IBM and Oracle, who have tried to offer cloud services, they are far from monopolizing a large portion of the market.
Each of the cloud platforms AWS/Azure/GCP is unique and offers a variety of options that can be customized to meet specific needs.
It remains to be seen if AWS will continue its dominance or if the other providers will catch up in the near future.
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