Let’s start by highlighting the 3 largest cloud service providers leading the cloud computing market and sharing a brief summary of the key strengths of each:
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- Azure (Microsoft Azure)
- AWS (Amazon Web Services)
Google Cloud Platform (GCP):
- Developed by Google, focused on big data and machine learning.
- Offers a wide range of services including computing power, storage and databases.
- Focused on sustainability, it offers green options.
- Developed by Microsoft, with a strong focus on integration with other Microsoft products such as Active Directory and Visual Studio.
- It has a wide range of services similar to AWS, such as compute power, storage and databases.
- Offers a range of AI and machine learning services.
AWS (Amazon Web Services):
- One of the first and most established cloud computing platforms, with a wide range of services and a large ecosystem of third-party partners and tools.
- Offers a wide range of services, such as computing power, storage and databases.
- Strong focus on security and compliance.
All three platforms offer a free trial and a pay-as-you-go pricing model, way to find which platform is right for me, find the goal you set out to achieve, as most companies are trying to convert to Multi Cloud rather than just working on one cloud provider.
Comparison of the key features of AWS, Azure, and GCP in chart format:
| Feature | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Number of services offered | Over 200 | Over 200 | Over 175 |
| Popularity/Market Share | Leading market share | Second in market share | Third in market share |
| Free Tier/Free Trial | Yes (AWS Free Tier) | Yes (Azure Free Account) | Yes (GCP Free Tier) |
| Integrated Development Environment (IDE) | AWS Cloud9,AWS CodeStar, AWS CodeCommit, AWS CodeBuild and AWS CodeDeploy | Azure DevOps | Cloud Shell, Cloud Code, Cloud Build, Cloud Source Repositories |
| Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) | EC2, S3, VPC | Virtual Machines, Azure Storage, Azure Virtual Network | Compute Engine, Cloud Storage, Kubernetes Engine |
| Platform as a Service (PaaS) | Elastic Beanstalk, Lambda, App Runner | Azure App Service, Azure Functions, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) | App Engine, Cloud Functions, Cloud Run, Anthos |
| Data and Analytics Services | Redshift, Athena, EMR, Glue, QuickSight | Azure Data Factory, HDInsight, SQL Data Warehouse, Azure Synapse Analytics | BigQuery, Cloud Dataproc, Cloud Dataflow, Bigtable, Data Loss Prevention |
| Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) services | SageMaker, Lex, Polly, Rekognition, Transcribe, Translate, Comprehend | Azure Machine Learning, Cognitive Services, Bot Service, Azure Databricks | TensorFlow, Cloud ML Engine, Cloud Translation API, Cloud AI Platform |
| Container services | ECS, EKS, Fargate, App Runner, App Mesh | AKS, Service Fabric, Azure Container Registry, Azure Container Instances | Kubernetes Engine, Cloud Run, Cloud Code, GKE On-Prem, Anthos for GKE |
| Security and Compliance | AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM), AWS Certificate Manager (ACM), AWS Key Management Service (KMS), AWS Shield, etc | Azure Security Center, Azure Policy, Azure AD, Azure Information Protection | Cloud Security Scanner, Cloud Key Management Service, Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy, Cloud HSM |
| Support & Services | AWS Support, AWS Trusted Advisor | Azure Support, Azure Advisor | Google Cloud Support, Google Cloud Console, Stackdriver, etc. |
Comparing the 3 big cloud providers in the following way, where we focus on the industry or business category what provider offers which type of tool, making it easier to understand when to use them:
| Use Case | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| E-commerce | Elastic Beanstalk, S3, CloudFront, DynamoDB, AWS MarketPlace | Azure Cosmos DB, Azure CDN, Azure Event Grid, Azure Search, Azure Commerce | Cloud SQL, Cloud Spanner, Cloud Firestore, Cloud Bigtable, Cloud Memorystore |
| Big Data | Amazon Redshift, Amazon EMR, Amazon QuickSight, Glue, Athena | Azure Data Factory, Azure Databricks, Azure HDInsight, Azure Synapse Analytics | BigQuery, Cloud Dataflow, Cloud Dataproc, Cloud Datalab, Cloud Bigtable |
| Software Development | AWS CodeStar, CodeCommit, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CodeGuru, App Runner | Azure DevOps, Azure Functions, Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), Azure Logic App | Cloud Shell, Cloud Code, Cloud Build, Cloud Source Repositories, Cloud Code for IntelliJ, Cloud Code for Visual Studio Code |
| Business Intelligence | QuickSight, Redshift, Glue, EMR, Transcribe, Translate, Comprehend | Azure Data Factory, Azure Synapse Analytics, Azure Power BI, Azure Databricks | BigQuery, Cloud Dataflow, Cloud Dataproc, Cloud Datalab, Cloud Bigtable |
| Healthcare | Amazon Connect, EMR, Glue, Rekognition, Transcribe, Translate, Comprehend, AWS Health | Azure Health Bot, Azure Blockchain for Healthcare, Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Machine Learning | Cloud Healthcare API, Cloud AI Platform, BigQuery ML, Cloud Translation API |
| Media and Entertainment | Elastic Transcoder, S3, CloudFront, AWS Media Package, AWS Media Store | Azure Media Services, Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Stream Analytics | Cloud Video Intelligence API, Cloud Speech-to-Text, Cloud Text-to-Speech |
| Finance | Amazon QuickSight, Amazon Redshift, Amazon Fraud Detector, Amazon Kinesis | Azure Cognitive Services, Azure Blockchain, Azure Data Lake Storage | Cloud Financial-grade API (FAPI), Cloud Data Loss Prevention (DLP), Cloud KMS |
| IoT | AWS IoT, AWS IoT Analytics, AWS IoT Events, AWS IoT Device Defender | Azure IoT Central, Azure IoT Hub, Azure IoT Edge, Azure Stream Analytics | Cloud IoT Core, Cloud IoT Edge, Cloud IoT Device Management |