AWS Vs Azure Vs GCP

Understanding the best option for a cloud platform can be a daunting task for businesses of all sizes. Each Cloud provider offers a variety of benefits and features, but which platform is the best choice?

In this post, we’ll offer an overview of each provider’s history and pricing model to identify the pros and cons associated with each contender.

Google Cloud Platform

Google’s entry into the cloud computing market was first announced in 2008, and its Compute Engine (GCE) service was made available in beta in July 2013.

Google was the first of the big three to offer an Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) option with their flexible computing platform that can scale on demand. GCE is also an open-source technology which makes it extremely scalable and reliable.

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Pricing Model For GCE: 

The pricing model for GCE is based on what Google describes as “reserved” instances; a virtual machine that is pre-allocated and billed in advance. The amount of “reserved” the customer can control resources, whether they are keen to purchase more or use less than the limit. For instance, a one-year subscription plan may cost $50 per month per ten ‘slots’ (default configuration), with additional slots costing $0.004 per hour and reserved RAM costing $0.05 per GB per hour, assuming that the customer does not go over the limit at any time during the month.

Features of Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform is a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services that includes cloud storage, GCE, and a tool for building mobile apps. GCE offers the following features:

Virtual Machines – Customers can create up to 320 virtual machines in their instance. Virtual machine instances are organized into “zones” worldwide; each zone has its infrastructure and associated costs.

Disks – Disk storage is billed at a fixed rate of $0.10 per GB-month, independent of usage, with each disk type having a cache associated with it.

Metadata – Metadata cost can amount to 10% of total data cost and includes costs for running metadata servers and the charges associated with the data stored in them.

Network – Google’s Fast and Virtual Private Network (VPN) services are available in five regions and can cost a third of the charges incurred by on-premise networks.

Application – GCE offers the ability to deploy and run applications in the cloud.

BigQuery – Google’s Big Data service is available as part of GCP. This service enables businesses to use data on any system connected to the Internet and analyze it through a set of SQL queries, even if the data is not stored in your local network. The cost for BigQuery varies depending on whether you use a credit card or pay for billing by invoice.

Pros:

• Very low cost per hour of resource usage.
• Compute Engine is available on-demand and scalable without affecting the customers’ other services.
• The whole infrastructure, including networking and storage, is managed within the Google Cloud Platform. This makes it easy to operate, as all provisioning is done through the console.

Cons:

• A limited number of “slots” in the cloud.
• Exclusive use of certain application programming interfaces (APIs).
• Reserved instances are billed in advance at a fixed rate, and quota management is impossible.

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Amazon Web Services

Amazon launched its cloud services in 2006 with Simple Storage Service (S3), a service offering online storage through web service interfaces. This then evolved into Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) in July 2006 and eventually into what is known today as AWS (Amazon Web Services). AWS has grown to offer a variety of cloud computing services, including storage options (S3, Glacier), data processing (Redshift, Elastic Map Reduce, QuickSight), and development framework options (CloudFormation, CodeCommit, Cloud9).

Pricing Model For AWS

The pricing model for AWS is based on ‘pay as you go,’ which refers to resources used per hour being billed at the end of the month. For instance, a two-month subscription plan which includes 100 hours of computing time costs $2.00 per hour (excluding VAT) for Linux instances and $0.135 per hour for Windows instances, with an hourly price of $0.033 for the latter.

Features of Amazon Web Services

Compute – Amazon EC2 is a web service that can deploy and run applications in the cloud. Amazon EC2 is a service that allows customers to launch and manage virtual servers securely (consisting of processors, memory, disks, and interfaces) and attach them to virtual networks (bridges and gateways).

Storage – Amazon S3 is a web service that gives customers access to storage capacity via the Internet. Storage can be formatted into AWS data storage objects such as buckets (which act like a “pool”), pools, and filesystems.

Hierarchy – Amazon EBS is a service that offers the ability to provide large volumes of storage space. Customers can store their data in a public cloud, or an on-premises location using the AWS Storage Gateway and use Amazon EBS to access it. This system allows data to be stored on block devices attached to Amazon EBS.

DynamoDB – Amazon DynamoDB is a web service that allows customers to create tables that mimic the data model used in relational databases. However, unlike relational databases, which use complex querying systems, DynamoDB is designed for simple key-value queries.

API –  Amazon’s billing system integrates with the credit card processing providers and enables customers to pay for their bills using credit cards.

Pros:

• The pricing model is based on usage and consumption.
• High infrastructure utilization, with AWS’s API offering “high levels of availability.”
• AWS offers less flexibility regarding the number of instances and the number of resources used compared to GCE.

Cons:

• Customers are limited in the number of options they can use with the AWS service.
• Exclusive use of certain application programming interfaces (APIs).

Azure

Microsoft launched Azure in 2010 with various infrastructure options available to customers, including IaaS, PaaS, and SaaS (also known as online services). Still, only the latter two were publicly available at launch.

In October 2015, Microsoft announced Azure Stack, allowing customers to access the cloud in a virtualized way using Azure VMs.

Pricing Model For Azure

The pricing model for Azure is based on ‘use as you go,’ which means that usage is charged as it occurs (e.g., an hour of computing will incur an hourly charge). This differs from Google and AWS, Who charge per provisioned amount of resources they have used in the billing period.

Features of Azure

Compute – Azure offers customers access to hardware that has been provisioned and then configured via a system known as the Azure Resource Manager (ARM). This allows customers to launch virtual machines, configure them and manage them accordingly.

Storage – Microsoft’s cloud storage offering is called Azure Blob Storage. This service is built on the open-source object storage standard known as S3. A blog is a set of containers made up of a range of data from JSON documents to executables.

API – Azure offers several generic and unassociated APIs with a specific system. These include authentication, notifications, and monitoring.

Hierarchy – Microsoft offers Azure Virtual Networks, allowing customers to create and deploy virtual networks in Azure. These networks provide cloud resources with stable global IP addresses, security, and easy connectivity to on-premises sites through virtual network gateways.

DynamoDB – This is a table-based system that works similarly to Amazon’s DynamoDB but with more features such as the ability to define the number of items that may be stored in a table.

Pros: 

• The pricing model is based on usage.
• Availability is guaranteed, with a 99.9% “Availability SLA,” and Azure, as one of thirteen Microsoft’s technology partners, is eligible for unlimited Azure credits.

Cons:

• Customers in certain scenarios will be charged a fee for unused compute hours in the billing month.
• Flexibility is limited by Azure’s IaaS offering, which only supports three VM sizes: Basic, Standard, and Premium.

AWS Vs. Google Cloud Vs. Azure: Best suited for you? 

The best-suited needs will vary from company to company, but each provider is suitable for certain use cases. A more cost-effective AWS platform will be the best choice for smaller businesses. For medium to large enterprises that require greater resilience and redundancy in their infrastructure. A GCP platform will offer greater stability and reliability at a lower cost.

For larger companies that require a more advanced set of tools to manage and monitor their infrastructure, Azure is the platform for them. Microsoft’s range of products is compatible with its cloud platform. Leading to a more seamless integration between your on-premise and Azure platform tools.

AWS, Azure, and GCP: Market Shares and Growth Rate

Global – November 2017

AWS is the largest cloud computing provider in the world. And with a growth rate of 28% in 2017, it is projected that it will make up 43% of IT infrastructure costs by 2020. Azure is currently in second place with a growth rate of 32% in 2017, but it is predicted that by 2020, Azure will be neck-and-neck with GCE to take second place behind AWS.

GCP currently sits in third place with a growth rate of 20% in 2017, equating to a predicted 7% growth rate by 2020. However, this number is expected to rise in the years following as more customers in the market come to understand and utilize GCE’s capabilities.

Companies are increasingly moving their infrastructure out of on-premise servers to the cloud. The reasons for doing so include flexibility, extensibility, reliability, cost savings, and security. There are three primary cloud vendors, AWS, Azure, and GCP.

AWS provides a range of services, including virtual machines, storage, networking, database services, and more. They also offer various application services such as web hosting and email.

Azure implements Microsoft’s cloud platform available on-premise and across multiple operating systems. They offer virtual machines, storage, networking, and databases.

Isn’t Google just a search engine? In 2008, the year GCE was launched, who would have guessed that Google would become one of the biggest cloud vendors today. GCE is a platform for developers to build their applications and for businesses to bring their workloads to the cloud. They provide a range of services and tools which one can use to create a fully functioning, scalable cloud application.

FAQ: AWS Vs. Google Cloud Vs. Azure

Why is AWS better than Azure and Google cloud?

AWS (Amazon Web Services) and GCP is cheaper than Azure and Google cloud. Azure and Google cloud have their pricing models, which depend on how many resources you want to provide.

You can directly compare AWS, Azure, and GCP by looking at their respective packages, IaaS options, and features.

Which is better, Azure or Google cloud?

GCP is better than Azure because of the infrastructure of Google cloud. The quality, the cost of resources, and the flexibility and reliability are better than Azure.

Is Google cloud better than AWS?

In terms of pricing, yes, with GCP. AWS has more options and features for customers to choose from than GCE (G Suite). However, GCP does not have as many big-name partners supporting it as AWS.

Hopefully, this post has provided you with some insight into the available platforms and some of their strengths and weaknesses. Whichever provider you choose, it is important to make sure that they can meet your current and future requirements. There is a considerable amount of choice for your cloud platform. So we encourage you to do your research and find the right fit.

Get in touch with Cloudstorks if you would like to inquire further about our IT service offerings or organize a free consultation session with one of our cloud specialists.