Cloud deployments have become the cornerstone of modern business operations. From enabling seamless remote work to optimizing efficiency, nearly every organization now relies on Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) or Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) solutions. Most businesses start with a single cloud provider—typically Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud Platform (GCP). However, the trend toward multi-cloud strategies is rapidly gaining traction. Companies adopt multi-cloud environments to mitigate risks by diversifying services, align workloads with the most suitable cloud platforms, and avoid vendor lock-in. A clear comparison of AWS, Azure, and GCP highlights the strengths and unique offerings of these leading public cloud providers.
[Related Reading: On-Premises vs. Cloud: What’s the Difference?]
Which Cloud Platform is Best?
While a quick answer to this question would probably make life easier, the reality is no short answer exists.
Every business has different needs, and each service provider responds to those requirements differently. For example, a software developer, financial institution, and e-commerce company all use their cloud services in different ways. Furthermore, they have different regulatory compliance requirements.
Meanwhile, like any other business, cloud services providers may offer similar services but often create their own niche that works best for their ideal buyers.
This is why every organization needs to understand the different ways that AWS, Azure, and GCP fit into their overarching cloud strategy goals.
What Differentiates Google Cloud, AWS, or Azure?
The first step to comparing cloud service providers is understanding the history of each platform. Each service started from a different place which has led to how the providers focus their offerings.
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
A spinoff from the Amazon.com e-commerce business, AWS started as a way to give large enterprise customers the ability to sell online. When AWS launched in 2006, it primarily offered compute, storage, and database services used by developers.
[Learn More: Alert Logic for AWS]
Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
Not to be outdone, Google launched GCP’s beta in 2008 with the App Engine product. While AWS provided IaaS services, GCP initially focused on PaaS services. Developers could develop and run their web apps in data centers that Google managed. Over time, GCP expanded its offerings to include Google Suite, Big Data technologies, and management tools.
[Learn More: Alert Logic for Google Cloud Platform]
Azure
Although hints of Azure were visible as early as 2005, the Microsoft PaaS offering started in 2008 under a codename and went commercially live in 2010. Ambitiously, the first iteration focused on compute, storage, and networking. Additionally, it wanted to appeal to various enterprise users so incorporated Windows Azure, Microsoft SQL, .NET, and Live, and SharePoint.
[Learn More: Alert Logic for Microsoft Azure]
Why Companies Choose AWS
As the first cloud service provider, AWS remains innovative because it has an earlier foundation upon which to build.
Most companies on AWS use the following services:
- AWS Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): Customizable, resizable compute capacity for hosting software or machine learning
- AWS Relational Database Service (RDS): Customizable database engine for deploying database servers and using with NoSQL databases
- AWS Lambda Function-as-a-Service (FaaS): Event-triggered serverless computing for background processes like image transformation, real-time data processing, and streaming data validation
- AWS Simple Storage Service (S3): Persistent storage originally for developers but also for archiving and cost-effective data migration
- AWS Elastic Container Service (ECS): Container management for running, stopping, and managing containers on a cluster
- AWS CloudFront Content Delivery Network (CDN): Cached data at edge locations for delivering data, videos, images, aps and APIs
Why Companies Choose Azure
Azure tends to market to the enterprise organization already invested in Microsoft products and services. Most businesses on Azure use the following services:
- Azure Hybrid: service for running workloads that combines on-premises Windows Server and SQL Server licenses
- Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD): virtual desktop interface (VDI) for remote access to Windows 10 and applications
- Azure Sentinel: security information event management (SIEM) and security orchestration automated response (SOAR) for threat hunting, detection, visibility, and response
- Azure Cosmos DB: NoSQL database with open APIs for mobile/web, gaming, and e-commerce/retail applications
- Microsoft Entra ID: Identity services for synchronizing across on-premises and cloud Microsoft environments with single sign-on and multi-factor authentication
Why Companies Choose GCP
GCP tends to focus on developers who want to build and run applications. It tends to focus on organizations wanting to build apps but lack the on-premises data centers to support them.
Most companies on GCP use the following services:
- Google Compute Engine: Pre-configured or customizable Kernel-based Virtual Machine (KVM) for Linux and Microsoft servers
- Google Cloud Storage (GCS): block, file, and object storage with lifecycle management rules across different data types
- Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE): managed, hosted staging environment for implementing microservices
- BigQuery Machine Learning (ML): machine learning models for extracting business insights
Things to Consider When Choosing Between AWS, Azure, & GCP
While each service provider excels at something different, they all offer similar product lines. For example, Azure offers Machine-Learning-as-a-Service (MLaaS), just like AWS and GCP do. On the other hand, it might not be the primary use case for choosing Azure. When choosing the right cloud provider, a company should consider more than just the product suite.
Regions
Depending on a company’s compliance requirements, the number of regions with availability zones may matter. For example, under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), companies should store and process data in one of the European Union countries.
This means that a company should consider the following:
- AWS: 33 geographic regions
- Azure: Over 60 regions
- GCP: 29 regions
Availability
While related to region, availability usually refers to performance and connectivity. The closer the user is to the region, the faster applications will run. Additionally, availability also incorporates failover, enabling more robust disaster recovery. Usually, each region will have multiple availability zones.
This means that an organization should consider the following:
- AWS: 84 total availability zones
- Azure: 3 availability zones per region
- GCP: 88 total availability zones
Specialized Services
This is another case where a company’s business goals would also define the cloud service provider choice. It also provides more insight into the differences between AWS, Azure, and GCP.
For example, a company focused on DevOps might look at the following targeted services:
- AWS: CodePipeline, CodeBuild, CodeDeploy, CodeStar
- Azure: Azure Boards, Pipelines, Repositories, Test Plans, Artifacts
- GCP: GCP DevOps, CloudBuild, Artifact Registry
Additional considerations might include specialized service capabilities for:
- AI/ML
- Internet of Things (IoT)
- Augmented reality/virtual reality
- Game development
- Business analytics
- End-user computing
- Robotics
Pricing Structure
Finally, budget is a consideration for every organization. Each of the three main providers offers various pricing models depending on an organization’s cloud usage. Across all three providers, pricing and billing can seem complex.
This means that an organization needs to consider the following:
- Resources required
- Ability to manage resource sprawl
- Governance
- Billing formats
- Monitoring usage versus budget
- Pricing reductions
- Pricing model changes
- Long-term vs pay-as-you-go pricing values
Security Across Cloud Environments
Regardless of the cloud services provider that an organization chooses, it still needs to ensure that it meets its own security responsibility requirements. Even with a cloud services provider, most organizations maintain on-premises data centers. While AWS, Azure, and GCP all provide security tools, managing the security across complex, hybrid, and multi-cloud environments is challenging without integrating all tools in a single location.
Fortra’s Alert Logic managed security services delivers a global view of threat activity for robust, continuous coverage across the infrastructure. Our platform supports cloud, multi-cloud, on-premises, and hybrid environments with a dedicated global security research team for consistent security outcomes no matter where systems are hosted.
