Comparing Google Cloud, AWS and Azure

Comparing Google Cloud, AWS

When it comes to cloud services, only three players stand apart and they are Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure. Each one of them provides world-class cloud services, but they are not identical to each other when it comes to solutions and technologies that they use. In today’s article, we will be Comparing Google Cloud, AWS and Azure. Before, we start with the actual comparison, let’s understand why we need cloud in the first place.

Why We Need Cloud?

Almost every sector is growing at rapid pace. Startups, especially are making the industry boom nearly every year. However, startups neither have the technical expertise nor the funds to correctly set up their cloud operations. The right way is to focus on what they do best, and leave the infrastructure problems to the cloud service providers.

Anyone can use the cloud without any knowledge of how to set it up. Also, getting the cloud services is not costly. You have to pay it on an hourly basis for the resources you are using for your application. Also, there is the bulk discount on packages, making the whole cloud services a better deal.

Note: Throughout the article, we will use both “products” and “solutions” interchangeably. However, when it comes to cloud, it is all about “solutions.” Solutions are best defined as pre-configured products which work together to solve a problem. They also have proper documentation and use cases.

Comparing Google Cloud, AWS and Azure

  • Compute

Compute is the heart of the cloud services. It means the ability to process data and calculate. This means that you can buy the processing power required to run our application or services. Compute can be used for multiple purposes including data analysis, graphics rendering and so on. This is an important feature, and you have to only pay for the time you are using the resources for.

Each cloud services have their own way of providing compute services when it comes to scalability and serving the demand. Let’s start with AWS. AWS offers Elastic Compute Cloud(EC2). It is one of the best scalable compute technology out there. The counterpart solution from Google and Azure including Compute Engine and Virtual Machines respectively. All these solutions are on par with each other. However, if you are looking for flexibility and best value, Amazon EC2 beats all. Only Azure’s is not flexible when it pricing.

If you are interested in web and mobile app compute services, then also you won’t be disappointed. Only AWS and Google offers services related to mobile and web apps. They are AWS Elastic Beanstalk and Google App Engine.

All these compute services also support Docker. Docker is a container service that makes it easy to build and deploy. For Amazon, it is the EC2 Container services(ECS). They also offer EC2 Container Registry(ECR). Google, on the other hand, offer Container Registry and Container Engine. All these services can be accessed remotely.

  • Storage

Storage is also one of the important aspects of cloud services. Current services generate petabytes of data every single day. To ensure that they can store it well and access it anytime, all the three major cloud services provide excellent storage solution at a very cheap price. The three storage solutions from Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure include Cloud Storage, Simple Storage Service(S3) and Azure Storage. The best storage is provided by S3 which is one of the oldest ones in the pack. It has proper documentation, tutorials, sample code and much more. However, it is slightly costly compared to Azure and Google storage services.

The three cloud services also offer archiving service. This lets you store data that is not frequently accessed. Also, archiving has lower costs compared to active storage services. The three respective services include Azure Backup, Google’s Cloud Storage Nearline and Amazon Glacier.

  • Analytics

Companies or startups just don’t use cloud services for compute and storage. They also need the tools to understand the huge amount of information that they capture. Big Data is all upon us and without it, it will be hard for any organization to stay afloat in the competition. The good news is all three cloud services provide specific technologies for analytics. For example, MapReduce, BigQuery, and so on.

All the three most popular cloud services offer big data solutions. It includes Big Data Solutions by Google, Big Data on AWS, and Big data and analytics on Azure. Moreover, you will be able to make sense of the capture data by using business intelligence(BI). Last, but not the least, you can use machine learning(ML) technology to learn about your data continuously. They provide APIs to access the data and play with it. This means you can write your custom ML algorithms and make use of the stored data.

  • Location

Our last comparison point is location. Having a data center near your business can help you target your users. It also reduces latency and improves the user experience. So, for example, your business is in the USA, then you should choose a service provider that has a data center there. There is no point in hosting your service across the globe as it will include unnecessary complications.

In terms of location, Amazon offers more data centers across the globe, followed by Azure and then Google.


When it comes to cloud services, comparing them can be a tough proposition. That’s why we only compared them using four parameters, i.e., compute, storage, analytics, and location. This will give you a good start and help you get a basic understanding of what they have to offer. However, we recommend to take time and then decide. Before you decide on which cloud service to use, you need to take multiple factors into account. For example, learn what your developers prefer, the complexity to deploy, your requirements and so on. Once you do it clearly, you will be able to make the right choice.


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