01.25.18


Updated August 2019
In a multi-cloud world, organizations may use different cloud providers for multiple capabilities concurrently. Most of the cloud service providers (CSP) out there offer high-quality services, with excellent availability, high security, good performance, and customer support. But the market is dominated by a top three—Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud, and Microsoft Azure.
Each CSP provides an array of products covering all you can possibly need for your online operations. They differ not only in pricing but also in how each name and group their services. Below, we show the most common elements: infrastructure, auto-scaling, security, monitoring, and much more. Our aim is to help cross-identify comparative services from each CSP so that you can easily weigh your application or workload requirements to select the best fit for your business.
Cloud Services Comparison List:
Compute
Storage
Networking and Content Delivery
Database
Management and Monitoring
Security
Developer Tools
Compute
Calculate, process, and compute—a computer’s fundamental role. In addition, the right cloud provider can scale to thousands of processing nodes for you in just a few minutes.
Storage
A key function of cloud services is its storage capabilities. While AWS’ storage services are the longest running, Google’s and Microsoft Azure’s are also very respectable and reliable options.
Service | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud Platform | Microsoft Azure |
Object storage service for use cases
|
Simple Storage Services (S3) |
Google Cloud Storage |
Storage (Block Blob)
|
Virtual server disk infrastructure
|
Elastic Block Store (EBS) |
Compute Engine Persistent Disks |
Storage (Page Blobs) |
Archive storage
|
S3 Infrequent Access (IA) Glacier Data Archive |
Nearline Coldline |
Storage (Cool) Storage (Archive) |
Create and configure shared file systems
|
Elastic File System (EFS) |
ZFS / Avere |
Files |
Hybrid storage
|
Storage Gateway |
Egnyte Sync |
StorSimple |
Bulk data transfer solutions
|
Snowball Edge Snowmobile |
Storage Transfer Service |
Import/Export Azure Data Box |
Backup
|
Object Storage Cold Archive Storage Storage Gateway |
Backup |
|
Automatic protection and disaster recovery
|
Disaster Recovery |
Disaster Recovery Cookbook |
Site Recovery |
Networking and Content Delivery
Each provider offers different networks and partners which interconnect their data centers across the globe using a variety of different products to achieve this.
Service | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud Platform | Microsoft Azure |
Isolated, private cloud private networking
|
Virtual Private Cloud |
Virtual Private Cloud |
Virtual Network |
Cross-premises connectivity
|
API Gateway |
Cloud VPN |
VPN Gateway |
Manage DNS names and records
|
Route 53 |
Google Cloud DNS |
Azure DNS Traffic Manager |
Global content delivery networks
|
CloudFront |
Cloud Interconnect Cloud CDN |
Content Delivery Network |
Dedicated, private network connection
|
Direct Connect |
Cloud Interconnect |
ExpressRoute |
Load balancing configuration
|
Elastic Load Balancing |
Cloud Load Balancing |
Load Balancer Application Gateway |
Bring Your Own IP Addresses
|
Bring Your Own IP Addresses (BYOIP) |
Hybrid Connectivity Using Your Own Public IP |
ExpressRoute |
Database
All three providers allow you to implement both SQL and NoSQL solutions. Alternatively, if you don’t need a database, go for their caching capabilities instead.
Service | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud Platform | Microsoft Azure |
Managed relational database-as-a-service
|
RDS |
Cloud SQL Cloud Spanner |
SQL Database Database for MySQL Database for PostgreSQL |
NoSQL (Indexed)
|
DynamoDB |
Cloud Datastore Cloud Bigtable |
Cosmos DB |
NoSQL (Key-value)
|
DynamoDB SimpleDB |
Cloud Datastore |
Table Storage |
Application or Memory Caching
|
ElastiCache |
Mem Cache |
Redis Cache |
Database migration
|
Database Migration Service |
Database Migration Service |
|
Managed data warehouse
|
Redshift |
Big Query |
SQL Data Warehouse |
Management and Monitoring
Each of the top three offers a range of management and monitoring services which provide visibility into the health, performance, and utilization of applications, workloads, and infrastructure.
Service | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud Platform | Microsoft Azure |
Cloud advisor capabilities
|
Trusted Advisor |
Cloud Platform Security |
Advisor |
DevOps deployment orchestration
|
OpsWorks (Chef-based) CloudFormation |
Cloud Deployment Manager |
Automation Resource Manager VM extensions |
Cloud resources management & monitoring
|
CloudWatch X-Ray Management Console |
Stackdriver Monitoring Cloud Shell Debugger Trace Error Reporting |
Portal Monitor |
Administration
|
Application Discovery Service Systems Manager Personal Health Dashboard |
Cloud Console |
Resource Health Storage Explorer |
Billing
|
Billing API |
Cloud Billing API |
Billing API |
Security
Here, we cover the range of capabilities provided to protect services and data.
Service | Amazon Web Services | Google Cloud Platform | Microsoft Azure |
Authentication and authorization
|
Identity and Access Management (IAM) Organizations |
Cloud IAM Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy |
Active Directory Active Directory Premium |
Information Protection
|
Information Protection |
||
Protect and safeguard with data encryption
|
Key Management Service |
Storage Service Encryption |
|
Hardware-based security modules
|
CloudHSM |
Cloud Key Management Service |
Key Vault |
Firewall
|
Web Application Firewall |
Application Gateway |
|
Cloud security assessment and certification services
|
Inspector Certificate Manager |
Security Center App Service Certificates |
|
Directory services
|
AWS Directory Service |
Active Directory Domain Services |
|
Identity management
|
Cognito |
Active Directory B2C |
|
Support cloud directories
|
Directory Service |
Windows Server Active Directory |
|
Compliance
|
Artifact |
Service Trust Portal |
|
Cloud services with protection
|
Shield |
DDoS Protection Service |
Developer Tools
And finally, the tools you need to build, deploy, diagnose, debug, and manage multiplatform, scalable applications and services.
Caylent provides a critical DevOps-as-a-Service function to high growth companies looking for expert support with microservices, containers, cloud infrastructure, and CI/CD deployments. Our managed and consulting services are a more cost-effective option than hiring in-house, and we scale as your team and company grow. Check out some of the use cases, learn how we work with clients, and profit from our DevOps-as-a-Service offering too.