This cloud services comparison was created to show the distinctions and similarities between three of the top cloud service providers as of April. Readers should verify the services and prices being offered by each before making a purchasing decision, since this comparison has been done without prejudice towards one provider over another.
Why should you compare AWS, Azure, and GCP cloud services? Outside of Asia, there are a plethora of cloud service providers providing comparable services. Despite the rapid changes in the cloud services market, we do not expect Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure (Azure), or Google Cloud Platform (GCP) to lose their positions anytime soon.
What is Covered in the Cloud Services Comparison?
To better illustrate the distinctions and parallels between AWS, Azure, and GCP, our cloud services comparison begins with a timeline of the three companies – this gives an indication of where they might be heading in the near future. The services that are currently available, their pricing models, and any discounts accessible to customers are then investigated.
Finally, we’ll look at multi-cloud management solutions. This part might help those considering a multi-cloud or hybrid approach. You are welcome to offer your feedback on our comparison – or inquire about multi-cloud management tools – by leaving a comment below.
The Differences Between AWS, Azure, and GCP Timelines
The idea of the cloud dates back to the 1960s, but commercial cloud service providers did not appear until after the dot-com bubble in the 1990s.Exodus Communications pioneered “Internet Data Centers,” enterprise-level web hosting through “Internet Data Centers,” but it was also one of the first firms to collapse when the dot-com bubble burst.
Amazon was revolutionizing e-commerce at the time of the dot-com bubble, and it would go on to become the world’s largest online marketplace. The firm recognized a chance to “sell access to virtual servers as a service,” which became the first AWS platform in July 2002, with just a few developer tools and services.
In terms of release timeliness, Amazon and Microsoft compare favorably. By contrast, Microsoft was notably slower to market with its Windows Azure Platform. The platform was first announced in 2008, but did not become commercially available until 2010 – when critics blasted the firm for calling it a “cloud layer for Windows Server systems” because it didn’t support Linux-based systems.
Google’s App Engine, which is now a key part of GCP, was first launched in 2008 as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) for web applications written in Python. Like AWS, Google released its Cloud Platform in stages. In April 2008, the company launched an app engine, which was followed by Google Cloud Storage in 2010 and the general availability of the Google Compute Engine in December 2013. Despite having a late start, Google is closing the gap with its product lineup against its two biggest market competitors.
The following dates are significant in the timelines of AWS, Azure, and GCP:
- AWS introduces its first openly accessible service, Simple Queue Service (SQS), in November 2004.
- EC2 compute instances and S3 cloud storage services are introduced in March 2006, with the AWS platform being relaunched as “a comprehensive set of core online offerings.”
- In April 2008, Google released its App Engine as a Platform-as-a-Service for public testing. It went into beta in 2011.
- In May 2009, Amazon Web Services added Elastic Load Balancing, Auto Scaling, and Amazon CloudWatch to its compute services.
- In March 2009, Microsoft announced the Windows Azure Platform will include a SQL Relational Database Service in version 1.0.
- In October 2009, Amazon adds a Relational Database Service (RDS) to its list of publicly accessible services.
- In February 2010, the Windows Azure Platform becomes commercially available. Throughout the remainder of the year, several features are introduced.
- In June 2012, the Azure platform debuted Linux VMs. Over the next year, Microsoft claims to add 7000 new customers each week.
- In November 2013, AWS debuts G2 instances, an EC2 instance type dedicated to 3D application development.
- In December 2013, Google Compute Engine and Google Cloud SQL became generally available.
- In March 2014, Google reveals price cuts of between 30% and 85% across its entire cloud service portfolio, prompting rivals to match.
- ECS is integrated with Docker in November 2014, which enables ECS to run within the AWS Lambda and EC2 Container Services infrastructure. Integration with Docker was made available at the time of launch.
- In September 2015, Azure Cloud Switch was announced as a cross-platform Linux distribution service to enable interoperability across several cloud services providers.
- In February 2016, Google announced that its Cloud Functions service was now in Alpha mode. The first public release took place in March 2017.
- The Azure Functions and Azure Containers Services are now generally available across all regions and availability zones in April 2016.
- In May 2017, Dell EMC debuts a hybrid cloud platform for Microsoft Azure Stack, allowing on-premises IT infrastructure to adopt the cloud model.
The timeline above demonstrates that AWS was first to market, as well as first to innovate. Microsoft Azure understands that it cannot compete by concentrating merely on Microsoft-compatible items and is spearheading the move towards multi-cloud and hybrid solutions. Google is somewhere in the middle, always seeming to try to catch up with AWS and Azure but releasing more adaptable goods and services.
