Cloud computing has revolutionized IT Industry where there is no longer a factor to consider whether or not to use cloud computing instead the debate is about which cloud platform to use. With several cloud providers entering the market, Amazon, Azure, and Google Cloud Platform stand proudly as the top three cloud providers. The contest for supremacy in public cloud computing is a three-way competition between Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). These three leading cloud providers clearly dominate the infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) and platform-as-a-service (PaaS) sectors.
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Market Share
According to Synergy Research Group's Q3 2021 study, Amazon leads the cloud computing industry with a 32% share, followed by Azure (20%) and Google Cloud Platform (9%). While AWS continues to be the dominating player, Azure has gradually increased its market share, rising from 16% in April - June 2020 to 20% in April - June 2021. Nevertheless, GCP has stayed pretty constant, with a 9% share in both the third quarters of 2020 and 2021.
Pricing
Although the three platforms offer different pricing models, they usually follow the pay-as-you-go model, where the users only have to pay for what they use.
AWS provides a free tier for customers to experiment with the platform and test out some of its services. Pricing after the free tier is determined by a number of factors, including the form of service, the amount of data exchanged, and the region in which the service is employed. Savings plans and reserved instances are also provided to assist businesses to save money on their cloud spending by AWS.
Azure also has a free tier that gives you access to certain of its services for a year. Pricing is depending on parameters such as the number of virtual machines used, the quantity of data transported, and the location of the data after the free tier. Similarly to AWS, Azure also provides reserved instances and hybrid advantages, which may help companies save money.
Similar to Azure, GCP also offers a free tier that allows access to some of its services for a year. Pricing also depends on the same factors as in Azure and AWS as the type of service used, the location of the data, and the amount of data transmitted following the free tier. GCP provides committed and sustained use discounts, which could help companies save money on cloud expenses.
Features
Amazon, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform all provide similar capabilities centered on flexible computation, storage, and networking. They share the following characteristics: self-service and instantaneous, autoscaling, provisioning, as well as security, compliance, and identity management features.
Services and solutions by all three platforms have aimed at cutting-edge technological areas such as the Internet of Things (IoT) and serverless computing (Lambda for AWS, Functions with Azure and Google). Machine learning has recently been a prominent area of technical advancement in cloud computing.
Amazon introduced SageMaker in 2017 to encourage the use of machine learning. The platform also includes a wide range of ready-to-use machine learning services for use cases such as image recognition, text-to-speech learning models, and Alexa's engine.
Azure Machine Learning from Microsoft allows developers to build, test, and deploy algorithms, as well as access a marketplace for off-the-shelf APIs.
Google provides an all-in-one AI platform that enables machine learning developers to construct and deploy models based on their famous open-source TensorFlow deep learning framework.
The latest container craze is taken into account, with all three providers offering managed services based on better container services such as Kubernetes.
Security
Amazon Web Services (AWS) provides a variety of security services, including Amazon Inspector for security evaluation, AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) for access management, and AWS Key Management Service (KMS) for encryption.
Azure Security Center for threat prevention, Azure Active Directory for access management, and Azure Key Vault for encryption are among the security services provided by Azure.
GCP provides a number of security services, such as the Cloud Security Command Center for threat detection and response, Identity and Access Management (IAM) for access management, and Cloud Key Management Service (KMS) for encryption.
Along with that, AWS, Google, and Azure carry out their security policy in a way that meets the requirements of CSA STAR, GDPR, HIPPA, PCI-DSS, and the standards of ISO.
Nowadays, Azure has the highest security level among the three cloud platforms mentioned here. It operates in accordance with over 90 quality benchmarks in 50 global sectors. Google's compliance, for comparison, matches only 45 of them.
Ease of Use
Amazon is known for having a high learning curve, and its huge array of services can be overwhelming to new users. Nevertheless, with the introduction of the AWS Console Mobile Application and Amazon CloudFormation in recent years, AWS has made attempts to enhance its user experience.
Azure and GCP are often regarded as having a more user-friendly UI than Amazon, as well as a more intuitive user experience. Both of them offer a range of tools and resources to assist customers in getting started, including Azure Adviser and Azure Quickstart Templates by Azure and similarly GCP Console and Google Cloud Shell by Google Cloud.
Support
AWS, Azure, and GCP all offer a range of support options, including documentation, online forums, and direct support through AWS Support Plans, Azure Support Plans, and Google Cloud Support Plans respectively. Training and certification programs to help users get the most out of the platform are provided by all three platforms.
Finally, AWS, Azure, and GCP are all excellent cloud providers that provide a wide range of services and features to meet the demands of different businesses. Amazon is still the market leader, but Azure is gaining momentum, while GCP has experience in big data and analytics. Price, features, ease of use, security, and support are all key factors to consider when selecting a cloud provider, and businesses should thoroughly assess their requirements before making a selection. Finally, the decision between AWS, Azure, and GCP will be determined by each organization's individual requirements and the trade-offs they are prepared to make.
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