Azure vs AWS vs Google Cloud:
What’s Right For You?
Deciding to move your company’s digital environment to the Cloud is no small task. When comparing AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud, there are several factors that need to be considered, including your budget and necessary functions for your business. Moving your environment to the Cloud can be a costly experience if done incorrectly, but in this cloud services comparison, we hope to help you avoid common pitfalls. Things like improperly sized instances, different licensing metrics, and unmonitored usage can trip up an otherwise smooth move to the Cloud.
While we most often are asked about Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services (AWS), we also field enough questions regarding Google Cloud that it would be a disservice to not include it in this comparison.
At MetrixData360, we strive to help our customers find the right software solution for their environment while keeping costs to a minimum. We’ve helped companies make their move to the Cloud that you can find your perfect home in the Clouds.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Starting our comparison of AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud is Amazon’s IaaS offering. Having pioneered the industry 18 years ago, AWS currently dominates the Cloud market. In 2018, AWS generated $7.3 billion, making up more than half of Amazon’s total earnings for the year.
How Much Does AWS Cost?
One of the most appealing features about AWS is its more affordable pricing compared to its competitors. AWS charges a pay-as-you-go styled billing system that requires no upfront payments or long-term commitments, which can make it quite cost-effective for startup businesses on a budget.
Amazon is constantly trying to make AWS cheaper, decreasing their price on fifteen different occasions over the past four years. AWS also has a calculator that can provide a quote for your business.
How Secure is AWS?
AWS has built industry leading security infrastructure for their clients, claiming to possess the largest ecosystem of security partners and solutions. Their system is fine-tuned to prevent attacks, detect any suspicious activities, respond to incidents quickly and effectively and remediate your AWS environment.
AWS also offers courses to promote best security practices. AWS claims that its high quality security is similar to the security that would be available to you on-prem with the advantage that your AWS security can be scaled up to match your company’s growth.
What are the Leading Features of AWS?
Getting to start with AWS can be incredibly easy, barely any more trouble than ordering something from Amazon. You set your features, apply your payments to your credit card and email, and click “start.”
AWS also has a massive computing profile when compared to its competition, with hundreds of thousands of clients around the globe, the sheer scale of it is something to note along with the fact that it is accessible from over 190 countries.
What are the Disadvantages of AWS?
The main disadvantage of AWS is that the price you sign up for doesn’t cover the other services you might eventually need. AWS doesn’t offer customer technical support by default. Instead, it comes with an added fee.
There is also a cap on the resources on their platform. AWS does have resource caps to help avoid system overload, which comes with the added benefit of making sure users don’t tear through their IT budget. The cap is placed at a setting that the average user isn’t expected to exceed, and you are able to request an increase, but you’d have to pay more for the additional space.
Although it is easy to get started with AWS, it’s another thing entirely to actually understand how to run it. There is an expected learning curve while you get a handle on AWS’s platform.
Microsoft Azure
The second contender in our AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud battle of the tech giants is Microsoft’s entry. While Azure might be smaller and newer to the Cloud market than AWS, Azure reports that their Cloud business is growing at a faster rate than AWS did when it was at Azure’s size. However, the umbrella term “Cloud” includes several Microsoft programs like Office 365 and Dynamic 365, which makes it difficult to judge how Azure’s growth actually compares with AWS. This tight integration with other Microsoft products also makes it highly appealing to companies who already have Microsoft deployed in their software estate.
How Much Does Microsoft Azure Cost?
Azure charges based on the minutes of consumption used with the option for lump sum payments for short term commitments offered at a discount. There are many features that can affect your final monthly cost with Azure, including per-gigabyte fees that are applied to both storage and usage. Azure also offers prospecting customers a calculator to estimate your monthly cost.
How Secure is Microsoft Azure?
Microsoft has invested over one billion USD into Azure’s multi-layered security system, proving it to be one of their main priorities. Roughly 6.5 trillion threat signals are analyzed on a daily basis in Azure through AI-driven security signals.
You can opt into certain security features when setting up your Azure account, which will increase the protection of your data. You can encrypt all your data stored on the server-side, which will prevent readable copies from being available if your profile is breached.
There is also an advanced-encryption standard, which is one of the more popular security options on Azure.
What are the Leading Feature of Microsoft Azure?
Azure hybrid benefits are easy to use and its system of high redundancy promises minimal down time. Azure’s storage also provides easy and painless access to files. Reviews also report that it is easier to set up, change and configure VMs to your Cloud estate.
What are the Disadvantages of Microsoft Azure?
While Azure offers many benefits to its users, it doesn’t offer to manage your company’s data. Activities like server monitoring and patching will still have to be done in-house or outsourced to another vendor.
There is also a steep learning curve that comes with the management of this network and compared to other platforms it is more difficult to use.
Google Cloud
Google Cloud is one of the newer players to the cloud platform, but what it lacks in size it makes up for in the sheer volume of investment. For this reason, Google Cloud has massive projections in growth. Google Cloud enters the market with the vast technical expertise of having Google behind it, so how does Google Cloud fare against AWS and ?
How Much Does Google Cloud Cost?
When you sign up for Google’s free trial of Google Cloud, Google will actually provide you $300 worth of credits to spend on their Cloud. Google Cloud also provides their potential clients with a calculator, in order to determine their end price.
Google charges per minute use and offers sustained-use discounts after a certain product is used more than 25% of a month. There are many potential variables to affect the end price with Google Cloud.
How Secure is Google Cloud?
Google Cloud security comes with an edge over its competitors by offering its customers the choice between letting Google Cloud manage your profile keys or letting you manage your own. By managing your own, you can quickly rotate through keys, dispose of old keys, manage key permission, and audit key use.
If you chose to enable two factor authentication (2FA), it will provide you with an additional layer of security so that even if a weak password is cracked, your system will not be exposed to hackers.
What are the Leading Features of Google Cloud?
One feature programming customers will enjoy is the fact that Google’s Cloud functions are written in JavaScript (Node.js), Python, and Go. The platform utilizes some of the most popular languages in use today, giving developers an ease of access that other platforms lack.
You are also allowed to use all your GCP, Firebase, Google Assistant, and 3rd-party Cloud services as building blocks to construct your Cloud empire.
What are the Disadvantages of Google Cloud?
The main disadvantage with Google Cloud comes from the fact it’s newer to the market and therefore lacks many of the advanced features that AWS and Azure have in their tool belts. For this reason, many clients chose to use it as a secondary provider, hosting some of their data on Google Cloud and the rest elsewhere on a more robust platform. As the platform continues to grow, however, there is a good chance that Google will be developing similar features to flesh out their cloud platform.
AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: Who is Right for You?
Moving to the Cloud should be quick, painless, and cost effective but we all know that life doesn’t always work that way. This is why it is always best to do your research beforehand and make a calculated decision that is best for your company. Ultimately, the best choice for your environment boils down to your needs: budget minded users will likely be drawn to AWS, but those with a Microsoft heavy environment may be drawn to Azure for its integration with other Microsoft programs.
At MetrixData360, our goal is to help you make smarter spending decisions when it comes to your software, so that you are only paying for what you need. If you would like to learn more about how MetrixData360 can help your company make a smooth transition into the Cloud, click the link below to check out our Service Page.
