AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: which is the best one?

Feb 22, 2023

19 min read

Specifics of Cloud organizations

Cloud organizations are exceptionally well known presently. 94% of enterprises use the cloud. Cloud-based services offer a much more scalable and reliable IT infrastructure that is specifically designed to streamline business performance and support development and growth. Cloud computing is also a safe way of storing and sharing data. 

Let’s point out some advantages of clouds that will make you sure about cloud computing:

1. Decreased costs

Setting up and running a data center is costly. You need to purchase the right equipment and hire technicians to install and manage the center.  Once you move to cloud computing, you will only pay for the services procured. The best thing is that here you can choose a package that suits your budget and save money.

2. Flexibility

One of the main benefits of cloud computing is mobility. The service gives you and your team the possibility to work from any location, anytime. Employees can complete their tasks remotely, which is very popular nowadays. 

Circling back to point 1, you can save money by reducing the number of workstations in your office and allowing the whole team or some of them to work from home and save costs further. All you need is a fast internet connection and you have an efficient working team. 

3. Scalability

Setting up and running a data center is costly. You need to purchase the right equipment and hire Cloud technology is planned to be scaled to meet the business’s changing IT requirements. As a company develops, it is unavoidable that more capacity space and transfer speed will be required to manage with expanding traffic to the site. You can get additional storage space or features whenever you need them by upgrading your package within minutes, as long as you meet the additional cost.

4. Data security

Cybersecurity in the cloud: it’s a must. In some cases, storing data on the cloud is safer than storing it on physical servers and data centers. A breach of security at your premises can lead to compromised data security if laptops or computers are stolen. If you have data on the cloud, you can delete any confidential information remotely or move it to a different account. Breaching the security measures in the clouding stages is troublesome. Consequently, you’re guaranteed information security.  

Today we have many cloud platforms to choose from, but AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are recognized globally as the top three cloud providers. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google dominate the public cloud landscape, providing the safest, most flexible, and reliable cloud services. Organisations will most likely want to begin with one cloud-service provider, either Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). 
So in this post, we will try to find out: which cloud computing platform is the best?

Brief information

So let’s start with Amazon – the oldest and the most experienced player in the cloud market. It was founded in 2006 and currently provides services such as IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, and more. As one of the oldest cloud providers, it has established a bigger user base, as well as bigger trust and reliability factors.  

Azure is a Microsoft product released in 2010. Today, the platform offers a wide range of various auxiliary tools, programming languages, and frameworks, which run on Microsoft Windows and Linux. Currently, about 60 services and data centers are available on the platform in more than 38 locations around the world. 

Google Cloud Platform is the youngest cloud platform mentioned above – it was launched in 2011 and offers many services including IaaS, PaaS, and Serverless, and also supports Big data and IoT. Providers have more than 50 resources and 6 global data centers at their disposal. Since the inception of Cloud computing, AWS has been dominating others in the global cloud market. AWS is enjoying dominance by securing around 33 percent of the global market share. While Microsoft Azure is ensuing, AWS with 22 percent of the global market share. And, GCP is in third place with a global market share of 9 percent.

Cloud Market Share:

  • AWS – 33%
  • Microsoft Azure – 22%
  • GCP – 9%
Global Cloud Services Spends List: Visual representation showcasing a list of global cloud service expenditure.

Source — Global cloud services spend exceeds US$50 billion in Q4 2021

AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: Who Uses Them?

Since AWS is the oldest player in the cloud market, it comparatively has a bigger community support and user base. Here are the companies that use AWS:

Powerhouse Organizations Leveraging the Strengths of Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Companies using AWS

Azure also has its share of high-profile customers:

Logos of various companies that rely on Azure for their cloud services and infrastructure
Companies using Azure

And, our last player, Google cloud, has such users like:

 Logos of various companies that leverage Google Cloud for their cloud computing needs
Companies using Google Cloud

This is only a small part of the clients who use these top cloud providers. Every organization is different and has different use cases for what they need from their cloud providers.

AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: Pros and Cons

Strengths

Weaknesses

AWS

  • Supports all major operating systems, including macOS (unlike other providers)
  • Simple startup
  • Highly flexible
  • Frequently updated and maintained
  • Free tier available
  • Greater control over security
  • Scalability
  • Cost-effective pricing model
  • Rapid deployment
  • Support for large enterprises
  • Comparatively, high cost
  • Additional fees for customer technical support
  • Resource caps

Azure

  • Intuitive configuration with the Microsoft family of software
  • Service contract discounts for Microsoft cloud computing users
  • Built-in apps that support a variety of languages (including Java, Python, .NET, and PHP)
  • Fairly low on-demand pricing
  • Lack of data management
  • Reports of difficulties regarding network management
  • Some believe it is more challenging to learn than other platforms
  • Design may feel less professional than other platforms
  • Reported issues with technical support

Google Cloud

  • Predominant scalability Simple setup and configuration
  • Utilization of well known dialects like Java and Python
  • Generous sustained-use discounts
  • Data stack adjusting and quick reaction times
  • Lack of advanced features
  • Less diversity of features
  • Fewer service offerings
  • Fewer global data centers

AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: Global comparison

AWS

Azure

Google Cloud

Pricing/ Discount Options

One-year free trial along with a discount of up to 75% for a 1-3 year commitment

Up to 75% discount for a commitment ranging from one to three years

GCP Credit of $300 for 12 months apart from a sustained use discount of up to 30%

Security

AWS Security Hub

Azure Security Centre

Cloud Security Command Centre

Caching

Elastic Cache

Redis Cache

Cloud CDN

Location

77 availability zones within 24 geographic regions

Presence in 60+ regions across the world

Presence in 24 regions and 73 zones. Available in 200+ countries and territories

Compute Services

  1. AWS Beanstalk
  2. Amazon EC2
  3. Amazon EC2 Auto-Scaling
  4. Amazon Elastic Container Registry
  5. Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service
  6. Amazon Lightsail
  7. AWS Serverless Application Repository
  8. VMware Cloud for AWS
  9. AWS Batch
  10. AWS Fargate
  11. AWS Lambda
  12. AWS Outposts
  13. Elastic Load Balancing
  1. Platform-as-a-service (PaaS)
  2. Function-as-a-service (FaaS)
  3. Service Fabric
  4. Azure Batch
  5. Cloud Services
  6. Container Instances Batch
  7. Azure Container Service (AKS)
  8. Virtual Machines Compute Engine
  9. Virtual Machine Scale Sets
  1. App Engine
  2. Docker Container Registry
  3. Instant Groups
  4. Compute Engine
  5. Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)
  6. Knative
  7. Kubernetes
  8. Functions

Networking

Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC)

Azure Virtual Network (VNET)

Cloud Virtual Network

AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud: Which One Should You Choose?

Each of the three cloud platforms, AWS, Azure, and GCP, is distinct in its way and provides a wide range of possibilities for businesses to choose from depending on their specific needs.

However, GCP has a great discount system that turns on automatically and, at first glance, really gives a great advantage. AWS is very strong in terms of brand trust and is the most popular platform. Azure – has a performance advantage by selling real cores rather than virtual hyper-threading threads (vCPUs).

Still undecided about which cloud is best for you? We’re here to help you with your problem. Send us a message and we will contact you.

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