Azure vs AWS vs Google Cloud: Which One to Choose for Cloud Migration

In recent times, cloud computing became quite popular. With growing digital transformation trends, it has come a long way. As per the Gartner report, it is predicted that the market for public cloud is all set to reach $411 billion in 2020 from $260 billion in 2017. By opting for cloud computing services entrepreneurs can now avail of benefits of an in-house infrastructure with a manageable cost. On average 73% of businesses are already using cloud computing solutions in multiple ways.

Organizations are migrating towards cloud computing solutions as they offer them with security, staff, smooth work, and scalability. For those who are looking down to the roadmap of cloud adoption, come up with several questions like “Which platform provides the most cost-effective services for my needs?”, “How shall I proceed about my cloud adoption” and the toughest question is “Which cloud platform should I adopt?”. Choosing the right cloud platform is the most vital and difficult decision for the growth and success of your business

Here is a checklist that you need to keep in mind while making the comparison or choosing the best cloud computing platform provider are as follows: -

• Evaluate Flexibility
• Economies of Scale
• A reliable service provider
• Standardized service

The most popular cloud computing platforms that we all have heard about are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). These three collectively dominated the cloud computing market. Choosing between these top cloud service providers is not an easy task. 

In this article we are going to compare these three platforms, which will help you in selecting the one as per your organization’s needs. But before that, let us first see what these cloud platforms are and their storage and computing services.

Amazon Web Services

This cloud computing platform is the most affordable platform for businesses of any size. Most businesses who are looking for compute power, content delivery, database storage, or any other functionality, opt for AWS compute services. AWS facilitates you to build powerful apps that are highly flexible, reliable and scalable. It works on the Pay-as-you-go model and also offers a “free-tier” option to get individuals an on-hand experience. It is the most popular and oldest service provider that is loved by all. 

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure is another big name in the cloud computing industry that is known to provide impeccable cloud computing services like building, testing, deploying, and managing apps. A close competitor of AWS, Azure offers public cloud services and is available in approx. 54 geographical regions. It is easy to configure and is fast to use with its open and flexible enterprise-level platform. Microsoft Azure is known to support multiple programming languages and tools which makes it all the more popular among the businesses. It offers various other services like Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and many more.

Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform is a well-known cloud computing platform offered by Google known to offer computing, storage, analytics, and machine learning (ML) services. It works on the similar principle as used by the big giant itself for Google Search, Gmail, file storage, and YouTube. Launched on 7th April 2008 this platform offers relatively fast connectivity as it uses Google’s global fiber network. Launched much later than AWS and Microsoft Azure, this newcomer has gained a lot of attention and popularity in a very less time. Like AWS, it offers free services at the start and later offers great discounts for the customers.

Not that you know a little about all three platforms, let us move on to comparing them on the basis of the most important parameters. 

AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: A Small Comparison

Today we are going to compare these three platforms on the basis of the three most important parameters which most businesses consider before choosing the most suitable cloud computing platform for their business.

• Storage  
• Compute
• Pricing

So, without wasting much time, let’s begin.

Storage comparison

Cloud storage services offer users the ability to store, access, monitor and manage their data in an organized and efficient way.

AWS Storage Services

AWS offers robust storage services with strong automation and extensive high availability options. SQL-supported databases and an ElastiCache feature provide additional memory. It consists of various storage services basis on the purposes: -

· Simple Storage Service (S3) - object storage;

· Elastic Block Storage (EBS) - persistent block storage; 

· Elastic File System (EFS) - file storage. 

Also Read: 7 Reasons Why You Should Choose Cloud Computing Services for Your Business 

Azure Storage Services

The dedicated storage option provided by Azure is known as Blob Storage, which supports three different SQL-based formats and provides users with a large array of databases. 

The kind of storage services it offers: -

· Blob Storage for REST-based unstructured data object storages,

· Queue Storage for large-volume workloads, 

· Basic File Storage and Disk Storage. 

Google Storage Services

Google Cloud is known to offer basic storage and database support, and unified storage. They provide both SQL and NoSQL database support. It requires third-party solutions to backup and archive services. 

Computation Comparison 

A cloud service provider needs to be able to scale several nodes in a fraction of minutes. Computational capabilities are a significant part of Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS).

AWS Compute Features

Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) is the primary compute service. It provides efficient autoscaling features for both web and mobile applications. VM, container, and serverless are the most extensive features of AWS compute service for running workloads of all types.

Azure Compute Features

It provides easy to use and comparable infrastructure on a hybrid model that combines on-premises and public clouds and can be integrated into global load balancing. The main advantage of Azure is that it relies on virtual machines and is compatible with the majority of commonly used services and applications like SQL and Windows Server, Oracle, IBM, SAP, and more.

Google Cloud Compute Features

It is one of the smoothest machine types when you need to perform specific workload-intense operations. It automatically scales and deploys code from Google Cloud, Firebase, or Assistant. With Google Cloud comes amazing discount offers, so for the ones who are using this service a lot many times and avail a great deal of discounts and offers.

Pricing Comparison

All three of these top cloud service providers offer free tier and pay-as-you-go services.

AWS Pricing

The pricing structure is a bit complex here as there isn’t a lot of transparency. This is the reason Amazon provides a cost calculator. Though it is always recommended to use a third-party management app to navigate through your options and contain costs. It offers 750 hours of EC2 service per month for up to 12 months as part of their free tier. 

Also Read: How Cloud Technology Flare Business Digital Transformation

Azure Pricing

Likewise, AWS, Azure provides 750 hours of the Windows or Linux B1S addition. The pricing structure is again a bit complicated and hence, will require a third-party cost management tool to keep things intact.

Google Pricing

Unlike the above two, Google has a transparent pricing structure and is as accessible as possible. Also, the prices are significantly lower than AWS and Azure. It offers Google’s free-tier incentive with one F1-micro instance per month for up to one year. You can call it a budget-friendly service with potential growth.

Final Thoughts

Cloud computing solutions are really important these days if you want to keep your business up and running smoothly. The final choice of the cloud service provider you will opt for depends on the technical requirements of the company. If we conclude the above points, in short, Azure is good for companies that use a lot of Microsoft products. It offers reliability and effective cloud solutions. On the other hand, AWS has the biggest reach with its data center all over the world. If the company is looking for a versatile and expansive solution, this is the one. Google Cloud has the most flexible pricing structure and thus is great for the companies looking for simple and efficient grounds for their operation. So, make your decision wisely and choose a platform that fulfils all your business requirements.