Google Cloud Vs. AWS Vs. Azure: Which one to choose?

Over the years, cloud platforms have become one of the most famous methods to interact with the cloud and build applications. Today, you have several cloud platforms to select from, but Google Cloud, AWS, and Azure are globally renowned as the top three cloud providers.

However, the question remains - which cloud computing is the best?

If you can choose just one, you would like to know more about these three before choosing one. Therefore, we have gathered a few points to differentiate these three cloud services, helping you select the best.

Google Cloud Vs. AWS Vs. Azure

1. Security and Privacy

• Amazon Web Services (AWS) - An amazon.com subsidiary offers an on-demand Cloud Computing platform to people, organizations, and governments on a paid-subscription basis. It is the oldest and enterprise-ready supplier due to its simplicity in delivering top-notch privacy measures and security to the users. Moreover, AWS does a great job defaulting to secure options to ensure greater privacy. For instance, when introducing an EC2, it auto-defaults the networking access to off.
• Azure - Outperforms Google Cloud in security terms because of its cloud defender aspect. It's an AI-powered tool that can aid you in finding errors in the cloud configurations, enhance your security posture, and safeguard your multi-cloud and hybrid environments from new cyber dangers. For example, if you introduce a primary instance of a virtual machine, all the ports are open by default.
• Google Cloud - one of the most secure platforms that offer security factors like encryption and Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP).

2. Fundamental Features

• Google Cloud - includes advanced data analytics and development tools. Apart from this, you can leverage its cloud SDK for interacting with Cloud APIs.
• AWS - has a 5-year head start and is more feature-rich, providing around 200 services compared to the other two.
• Azure - Having over 100 services, Azure's strength relies on its global reach and availability. Other than that, several tools to seamlessly manage the Azure cloud system. If you leverage Azure, you can move data between your sites without leaving the network, resulting in minimized latency, lower prices, and higher security.

3. Compute Engines

• Google Cloud - Google's scalable virtualization network hosts Virtual Machines (VMs) in Google's data centers. This can start up swiftly, having a lot of storage space, and can be personalized according to client requirements.
• AWS – A primary compute offering of AWS is its customizable ECS instances. We can change storage, connect more models, adjust regions, and more. If you've no earlier experience in computing or are worried about high billing costs, start with Amazon Lightsail - a cheap, dependable virtual private server with serverless computing. An added advantage is to pay only for the computing capacity leveraged.
• Azure - Compute solution of Azure relies on VMs, with tools such as Resource Manager and Cloud Services to aid with cloud app deployment and Azure Autoscaling.

4. Availability Zones

• Google Cloud - available in 20 regions globally and 3 more to come.
• AWS - 66 availability zones with 12 more following.
• Azure - available in 54 regions and 140 countries globally.

5. Major Clients

• Google Cloud - Bloomberg, HSBC, Dominos, PayPal and 20th Century Fox.
• AWS - Zynga, Netflix, Samsung, Unilever, MI, Airbnb, and BMW
• Azure - Honeywell, Johnson Controls, HP, Polycom, Apple, and Fujifilm.

6. Pricing

• Google Cloud - smallest instances containing 2 virtual CPUs and 8GB RAM is obtained at 25% cheaper rate (us $52/month). In case of larger instance (3.75TB RAM and 160vCPUs), you get for US $5.32/hour.
• AWS - The cost of basic instances (2 vCPUs and 8GB RAM) is over $69/month and larger instances (3.84TB RAM and 128 vCPUs) is $3.97/hour.
• Azure - For small instances (8GB RAM and 2 vCPUs) the cost is over $70/month and that of larger instances (128 vCPUs and 3.89TB RAM) is $6.79/hour.

7. Hybrid & Multi Cloud Choices

• Google Cloud - Looker, Cloud Run for Anthos, Anthos, Cloud Build, Operation, and Traffic Director.
• AWS - Wavelength, Snowball, Local Zones, Amazon EKS Anywhere, VMware Cloud on AWS, Outposts, Snowcone.
• Azure - Centinel, Arc, Blob Storage, Active Directory, Stack, Backup and Security Center.

Which One to Choose?

Considering everything, we conclude that AWS is easier to learn if you have no earlier cloud expertise. AWS continues to set the standard for stability and potential in broad strokes.

It remains the undisputed market leader in quality, security, and features. However, you will have to pay a premium compared to the rest, which is why Microsoft Azure is suggested as the second-top option if you are in a tight expense spot.