AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud: What’s Best for Your Business?

July 20, 2021 - by Synoptek

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Cloud adoption is no longer just a fad or a competitive differentiator; it is a catalyst and driver for successful, long-term transformation. Although a lot of organizations have been apprehensive about data security of and in the cloud, the big three cloud vendors AWS, Azure, and Google have successfully thwarted early concerns. With all of these platforms, businesses can drive greater efficiencies, improve business agility, and also innovate faster – with organizations even in the most heavily regulated industries not worrying about data security or compliance.

Looking at the Top Three Public Cloud Vendors

Although each of these public cloud vendors offers a host of new-age services and capabilities, when it comes to choosing one over the other, the decision is not easy. So, who’s winning the battle in the XaaS enterprise market? And which cloud vendor is best for your business? Read on to find out!

AWS

The public cloud market has been dominated by AWS from day one; even today, it is the market leader, offering reliable, scalable, and cost-effective computing services. Established in 2006, Amazon’s services such as EC2, Lambada, and S3 make it an extremely sought-after platform for developers, data scientists, and solution architects.

Azure

Launched in 2010, Microsoft Azure provides organizations with intelligent, cloud-native innovations, allowing them to build what they want, where they want it. They can create secure, future-ready cloud solutions using the numerous on-premises, hybrid, multi-cloud, and edge options while leveraging cutting-edge capabilities across AI, machine learning, containers, and IoT.

Google Cloud

Google Cloud offers several modern cloud capabilities, allowing businesses to build apps faster, make smarter decisions, and enable collaboration across their enterprise while accelerating their transformation. Since its launch in 2011, this public cloud platform is a popular choice for organizations across telecommunications, media, retail, and software companies.

AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud – A Comparison

As cloud becomes a core driver for transformation and success, it is no longer a question of whether to opt for cloud, but which platform to choose. Although the market is mushrooming with hundreds of vendors, here’s comparing the top three providers:

AWS Azure Google
Key Strengths
  • Breadth and depth of services
  • Platform configuration options
  • Strong partner ecosystem and the AWS Marketplace
  • Ease of migration and deployment
  • Wide range of productivity and collaboration features
  • Seamless integration with the Microsoft portfolio of products
  • Expertise in the latest technologies such as containers
  • Robust big data and analytics capabilities
  • Strong cloud-native capabilities
Availability Zones 66 availability zones 54 regions 20 regions
Compute Capabilities Tailorable EC2 instances, AWS Lambada, and Autoscaling for app deployment in the cloud Highly capable Cloud Services and Resource Manager for app deployment in the cloud Scalable and highly customizable Compute Engine that delivers VMs in Google’s data centres
Storage Options An array of storage options including Simple Storage (S3), Elastic Block Storage (EBS), Elastic File System (EFS) Several storage options including Azure Storage Service, Azure Blob block storage, as well as Table, Queue and File storage A range of cloud storage options including object, block, archival, and file
Security Comprehensive security controls across network, infrastructure, endpoint, data protection, governance, risk and compliance, threat detection, identity and access control, vulnerability and configuration analysis and application security Unparalleled built-in security intelligence including Security Center, Key Vault, Azure DDoS Protection, Azure Information Protection, Application Gateway, Microsoft Azure Attestation, and Microsoft Azure Confidential Ledger Secure-by-design infrastructure with built-in protection across information, identities, applications, and devices.

Comprehensive set of compliance offerings across ISO/IEC, SOC, PCI/DSS, FedRAMP, HIPAA, GDPR and CCPA
Backup and Recovery Efficient via Glacier archive backup and Storage Gateway Efficient via Site Recovery, Import Export, and Azure Backup Efficient via Google Cloud Console, client libraries, and REST and RPC APIs
Relational Database Support Strong, via Amazon Relational Database Service Strong, via Azure SQL Database Strong, via Google Cloud SQL
Machine Learning Capabilities Strong, via SageMaker and a host of intelligent contact centers, personalization options, and intelligent document processing and search Strong, via automated machine learning capabilities, end-to-end MLOps etc. Strong via Vertex AI, AI building blocks, AutoML, AI infrastructure etc.
Hybrid Cloud Deployments Decent, via Outposts, a fully managed service that delivers pre-configured racks to seamlessly run AWS services Most promising, offering the hardware and software required to deploy Azure services from a local data center with a shared management portal, code, and APIs for simple interoperability Decent, via Anthos, that brings together a combination of the existing Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) and the Anthos Config Management console and offers unified administration, policies and security across hybrid Kubernetes deployments
Pricing
  • Pay-as-you-go for over 160 cloud services
  • Tiered pricing and volume-based discounts as usage increases.
  • Several Savings Plans for AWS Compute and AWS Machine Learning Services
  • Pay-as-you-go model with competitive and transparent pricing
  • Substantial savings with the Azure Hybrid Benefit and other Azure offers
  • Free enterprise-grade cost management tools
  • Pay-as-you-go pricing with automatic savings based on monthly usage
  • Discounted rates for prepaid resources
  • $300 in free credits for new customers

The Final Verdict

Choosing the right public cloud platform for your business can be a Herculean task. But here are some tips:

  • If you’re looking to opt for a cloud with the widest range of functionality and maturity, AWS is a perfect choice
  • If quick deployment, cost-effectiveness, and user-friendliness are your core requirements, Microsoft is a true winner
  • And if you’re looking to leverage cutting-edge analytics and cloud-native capabilities, Google Cloud is your best bet

Remember, no cloud is better than the other: the decision you make depends on which cloud platform best fits the unique needs of your organization.

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