AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud- A detailed

comparison of the Cloud Services Giants

chapter247.com/blog/aws-vs-azure-vs-google-cloud-a-detailed-comparison-of-the-cloud-services-giants

28 April 2020

It is a universal fact that cloud computing is increasing both in importance and

popularity. A Gartner report predicts that by the end of 2020, the market for
public cloud is all set to reach $411 billion in 2020 from $260 billion in
2017. The growth numbers are not just encouraging but also gigantic, and in a move to
make their presence felt, cloud service providing companies are now focused to
increase their services, optimize costs and take the numerous position in the public
cloud market.

Cloud-computing has traveled a long way ever since its inception. Now, it is no longer
the question of whether organizations have to opt for cloud computing or not, the
question now is which cloud platform to opt. The cloud computing market is currently
flooded with numerous cloud service providers, but AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud
Platform (GCP) proudly retain the top three slots.

These public cloud service providers endow the following benefits to

organizations:

Skillful management of resources.

Storage extension.
Access to data anytime and anywhere.
Increased security.
Access to innovative technology especially for smaller firms.

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So how do you choose and conclude the ongoing debate about the best one?
Well, this blog will help you get answers to all your questions.

Let’s talk numbers

In terms of the cloud market, Amazon’s AWS has retained the top slot for a very long
time.

Source: Statista

As is implied, Amazon is dominant and from a 2020 report from Synergy Research,
Amazon’s growth has been defining as it has successfully maintained the momentum.
Meanwhile, it will be safe to say that Microsoft has a stronger portfolio in SaaS, while
GCP in AI is placed for aggressive growth in the coming time.

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Source: Intellipat

Clocking in the growth trend, despite Microsoft Azure and GCP a little behind AWS,
their market shares have never shown southward growth. The graph above is a 2019
collected data where GCP has amassed 83% growth, while Azure has registered a 75%
growth. AWS has maintained its momentum with a 41% growth rate.

Such a growth rate is possible only because organizations have embraced it. As per the
estimates, 84% of the enterprises have a multi-cloud strategy. Take a look at the
illustration below:

Source: Flexera

About the Big 3 Cloud providers

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Much as we know that numbers do the speaking, it is also important to know about each
of them in little detail. We will begin with Amazon which is the market leader for quite
some time now.

Amazon web services – AWS has evolved and how! The cloud service provider
endows on-demand service to organizations, governments, and individuals. It is a
secure cloud-service avenue that offers computing power, CDN, database storage to
help businesses grow and scale their offerings. AWS functions on an annual
subscription pricing model in addition to the free-tier option for the organizations to get
hands-on experience at zilch sub-charges.

AWS was first launched with a view to effectively handle its growing retail operations. It
is credited to be the 1st cloud-computing company to introduce the Pay-as-you-go
model. AWS can handle multiple services such as data management, hybrid cloud,
migration, AI, big data management, and more. AWS has 100 plus services in its
directory with benefits like cost-effectiveness, flexibility, agility, and security.

Source: Kinsta ( Top brands using AWS)

Microsoft Azure – Azure is Microsoft’s cloud computing platform that offers a gamut
of cloud services including analytics, storage, computing, and networking. It has 3
models of cloud services like SaaS, PaaS, and IaaS and is an open and flexible
enterprise-level platform faster to use. Azure primarily has 11 services that it offers to its
clients namely, Hybrid integration, Data storage, compute, analytics, CDN, IoT,
Management and security, etc. It assists businesses to improve their agility and let the
developing ecosystem and pipeline communication.

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Source: SoftwareONE ( Azure’s platform services)

Source: Microsoft Azure

Google Cloud – GCP is one of the youngest Cloud players but even in the little time
span, it has managed to establish a good customer base. Its BigQuery analytics engine,
ML tools, and innovative approach for bigger enterprises have established it as a
strategic cloud player. It started its journey in 2011 with the intention to strengthen its
own base of products. But as now they also have initiated enterprise services so that any
organization that shares the same infrastructure like Google search can use it.

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Source: Kinsta

AWS vs Azure vs GCP – Battle of the titans

The top three brands that govern the market will be compared on the basis of the most
common cloud services:

Compute
Storage
Database
Networking and Content Delivery
Availability zone

Before going through these elements, let’s do a feature by feature comparison of the
giants-

Top Features AWS Azure GCP

SLA(Service Amazon EC2- 99.5% annual 99.9% uptime 99.95%

Level uptime Amazon S3 – A monthly monthly
Agreement) uptime of at least 99.9% for a billing uptime
availability cycle

Max 128 nos 128 nos 96 nos

processors in
Virtual
Machines

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 Maximum 3904GiB 3800GiB 1433GiB
Memory in
Virtual
Machines

Marketplace AWS marketplace Azure G Suite

marketplace Marketplace

Supported Core OS, Windows, SLES, Cloud SLES, Windows,

OS Linux, Ubuntu, etc Windows, SLES,
CentOS, CoreOS,
Oracle Linux, FreeBSD,
etc etc

Compute

This is one of the most fundamental roles in dealing with computing workloads. A cloud
service provider should be able to scale a considerable number of nodes in a fraction of
minutes. On the basis of computing, the top comparisons are:

Service AWS Azure GCP

Maintaining and managing EC2 VM & VM scale Compute

virtual servers sets Engine

PaaS Elastic Cloud services Google App

Beanstalk engine

Easing of virtual private servers Lightsail Virtual Machine –

Image

Container Deployment – Container service Container

Engine

Running backend & system Lambda Event Grid & Cloud Beta
integration Web Jobs Functions

Container register EC2 registry Container registry Container

registry

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Storage

This is yet another important function and is related to data storage. On the basis of
services, the comparisons are enlisted below:

Storage AWS Azure GCP

service

Hybrid Storage gateway StorSimple Egnyte Sync

storage

Bulk data Snowball edge, Import/Export Data Box & Storage

transfers disk & Snow Mobile Import/Export transfer service

Back-up Cold Archive storage & Storage Backup –

solutions gateway

Disaster Disaster recovery Site recovery –

recovery

Database

A Database comparison is essential for database workloads. The below table provides
the perfect comparison of the database domain.

Database AWS Azure Azure

services

Caching ElastiCache RedisCache CloudCDN

Object Storage S3 Blobs and files Cloud storage

block

Block storage EBS Page Blobs Persistent disks

Indexed DynamoDB Cosmos DB Datastore, Big

NoSQL table

Database Database migration Database migration –

migration services services

Networking Service

Networking AWS Azure GCP

service

Virtual Network Amazon VPC Virtual Virtual Private cloud

Networks
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 Elastic load Elastic load Load balancer Cloud load balancing
balancer balancer

DNS Amazon Route 53 Azure DNS Google Cloud DNS

Peering Direct Connect ExpressRoute Google cloud

interconnect

Pricing

Machine AWS Azure GCP

Type

Smallest 2 virtual CPUs and Instance with 2 vCPUs 2 virtual CPUs and 8 GB
Instance 8 GB of RAM will and 8 GB of RAM, in of RAM at a 25 percent
cost nearly US$69 Azure, costing cheaper rate costing
per month US$70/month US$52/month

Largest 3.84 TB of RAM 3.89 TB of RAM and 3.75 TB of RAM and 160
Instance and 128 vCPUs will 128 vCPUs. It costs vCPUs. It will cost close to
cost around around US$6.79/hour US$5.32/hour
US$3.97/hour

Very recently, AWS started offering pay-per-minute billing which Azure already is using
while Google charges with the Pay-per-second billing model letting users save more
compared to AWS and Azure.

Availablity Zones

AWS is the oldest hence it has had more time to expand its network. AWS is hosting in
multiple locations along with GCP and Azure but there is a difference in the availability
zones:

At present, AWS has 66 availability zones with 12 on the anvil.

Azure caters to 54 regions worldwide and is available in 140 countries.
GCP is available in 20 regions around the world with 3 more on their way.

Key Takeaways
what’s best for you:

It’s time to now wrap up this comparison journey by taking a look at the most important
points that will help you get the large picture.

1. Establishment– AWS is the clear winner as it has a head start of 5 years over its
counterparts.

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 2. Growth Rate– Here the winner is GCP as it is currently clocking growth rate
close to 100%.
3. Market Share– Hands down goes to AWS with a 33% market share.
4. Brands– With several top companies using all three, it is a tie between them.
5. Availability zone– Clear winner is AWS with a greater number of regions and
availability zones.
6. Pricing model– the presence of customer-friendly pricing models and
discounts makes GCP the clear winner.
7. Services– AWS leads the way with the volumes of services provided but with
respect to the integration with open-source and on-site platforms Azure leads the
pack.

Compiling a comparison guide in the ever-evolving technology market is a challenging

affair. With the help of our blog, we hope there is clarity now. As we can see, AWS is a
clear winner, but Azure and GCP are growing at a furious rate reinstating the rising
popularity.

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