Azure vs AWS vs GCP: Key Differences Between Cloud Computing Services Providers

The competition is accelerating up in the public cloud space and there is a significant competition by the three leading cloud providers: Microsoft Azure vs AWS vs Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Choosing the best cloud service provider is one of the most crucial business decisions for a business. In this article, we will throw light on the competition between the three giants of the cloud service providers: 

Cloud Services must be used wisely otherwise they can be a considerable burden on a company’s budget. Let’s take a look at the major factors which can influence the choice of a cloud platform

 

Pricing Models: AWS vs. Azure vs. Google 

 

The charge for their cloud services providers is based on a multi-layered approach. This includes: 

• The scope of cloud services (both user-based and time-based) 
• The configuration of the cloud platform.
• Other related expenses (for example, cloud migration, etc).

 

Let’s look at how pricing models are organized on these three big cloud providers.

 

AWS Pricing

 

• Amazon AWS is known for its comprehensible pricing policies. Amazon provides a cost calculator including numerous variables in order to keep things transparent. AWS has a number of options, hence it is really hard to estimate anything practically and the actual price may be drastically different.  

 

Azure Pricing

 

• Microsoft Azure’s pricing structure is similarly complicated and has numerous software licensing options, variations of configuration, and special offers. Just like AWS, Azure will require a third-party cost management tool to keep things intact.

 

GCP Pricing

 

• Unlike AWS and Azure, Google Cloud Services are transparent and accessible. It almost seems like Google Cloud pricing policies were designed in spite of Azure and AWS approaches. GCP prices for computing and storage services are significantly lower than AWS and Azure. In addition to that, Google provides various discounts for their services.

 

Compute Services: AWS vs Azure vs Google

 

Amazon AWS

 

• The main asset of AWS compute is Elastic Compute Cloud i.e, EC2. One of the greatest advantages is the immense flexibility of configuration. Amazon AWS provides bare metal instances, GPU instances, high-performance computing, auto-scaling i.e, everything you might need in your cloud infrastructure.

 

• Another big AWS asset is container services like Docker, Kubernetes, and Fargate. These container services provide automatic server management that protects administrators from troubles.

 

• In addition to that, AWS offers a virtual private cloud option named as Lightsail. It might be a good choice in the case of implementing hybrid cloud infrastructure.

 

Microsoft Azure

 

• The main advantage of Microsoft Azure over GCP and AWS is Virtual Machine – an emulation of the computer system composed of disparate parts. Azure’s Virtual Machine Scale Set provides everything the system requires for scalability. 

 

• Virtual Machines are compatible with the majority of commonly used services and applications (including Windows Server, SQL Server, Oracle, IBM, SAP, etc). 

 

• Azure’s other big thing is Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning features. And, there is an exclusive distributed systems platform for applications with a microservice architecture called Service Fabric. It allows streamlining of the application structure while keeping its performance high and reliable.

 

Google Cloud Platform

 

• GCP primary service, Compute Engine has a predefined ma machine types. Google Compute Engine (GCE) is part of Google’s Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) offering, where you can establish high-performance, fault-tolerant, massively scalable compute nodes to handle your application’s needs.

 

•  Another best part of GCP is that there are automatic discounts if you are using the service a lot. 

 

Cloud Storage: AWS vs Azure vs Google

 

Amazon AWS 

 

AWS provides data storage for different purposes: 

 

• Simple Storage Service (S3) – object storage;
• Elastic Block Storage (EBS) – persistent block storage; 
• Elastic File System (EFS) – file storage. 

 

There is a feature used to create a hybrid storage environment. There is a feature called Storage Gateway. 

 

AWS databases include: 

 

• Aurora for SQL-compatible databases
• Relational Database Service (RDS)
• DynamoDB NoSQL database
• ElastiCache in-memory data store
• Redshift data warehouse
• Neptune graph database 
• Database Migration Service
• For archival storage, AWS provides Glacier service 

 

Microsoft Azure

 

Microsoft Azure Storage features are tailor-made for intrinsic manipulations and large-scale operations

 

• Highlights of Azure storage services include: 
• Blob Storage for REST-based unstructured data object storages, 
• Queue Storage for large-volume workloads, 
• Basic File Storage and Disk Storage. 
• Data Lake Store for big data applications. 
• Data Warehouse service, 
• SQL-based options are compatible with numerous integrations.
• SQL Database
• Database for MySQL 
• Database for PostgreSQL. 
• Cosmos DB 
• Table Storage for NoSQL with Redis Cache as in-memory service 
• Server Stretch Database is its hybrid storage service designed specifically for organizations that use Microsoft SQL Server in their own data centers. 

 

Microsoft offers an actual Backup service, as well as Site Recovery service and Archive Storage.

 

Google Cloud Platform

 

Unlike Azure and AWS, Google Cloud provides Unified Storage.

 

• GCP databases include SQL-based Cloud SQL
• Cloud Spanner is a relational database for mission-critical workloads. 
• There are also NoSQL solutions Cloud Bigtable and Cloud Datastore. 

 

GCP is a great fit for reducing the backup cost and archives while still retaining immediate access. Backup data in Cloud Storage can be used for more than just recovery because all storage classes are accessed through a single API.

 

Conclusion

The choice of cloud provider mostly depends upon the business and technical necessities of any organization. 

 

• Azure is a good option for those organizations that use a lot of Microsoft products and have a need for reliable and effective cloud solutions.
• AWS provides the widest selection of various services and has the biggest reach with its data center all over the world. 

 

In comparison with Amazon AWS and Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud seems almost grassroots. Amazon AWS is a perfect solution for companies that rely on web-based products, and need simple and efficient grounds for their operation. AWS is Amazon’s cloud computing platform that offers fast, flexible, reliable and cost-effective solutions.