Amazon Web Services (AWS) vs. Microsoft Azure vs. Google Cloud Platform (GCP) are in a three-way race for public infrastructure cloud computing leadership. These three top cloud companies clearly dominate the infrastructure as a service (IaaS) and platform as a service (PaaS) markets.
AWS is dominant in particular. “Amazon’s growth remained closely linked to the total market growth, and thus retained a 33% share of the [cloud] global market,” according to a 2020 analysis from the Synergy Research Group. Microsoft has again grown second-class quicker than the market and in the last 4 quarters, its market share expanded by over three percentage points to 18%.
Microsoft is especially strong in SaaS, while Google Cloud is positioned to be competitive as the AI market increases with its artificial intelligence force – and is famous for offering discounts.
Amazon Web Services
Amazon’s infrastructure cloud computing are unrivalled with a huge collection of tools that continue to increase tremendously. However, its cost structure might be perplexing and its focus on the public cloud instead of hybrid cloud or private cloud makes it a priority of AWS not to interact with your datacenter.
Microsoft Azure
Azure is an excellent AWS competitor with an extremely powerful infrastructure cloud computing. This cloud platform speaks your language, if you are a business customer – few firms as well as Microsoft have a business background (and support for Windows). It knows that you are still running a datacenter and the Azure platform works hard to communicate with the data centers.
Google Cloud Platform
Google, a well financed sub-contestant, later entered the cloud market and has no enterprise focus which helps to attract corporate customers. However, its technological know-how is vast and its tools in the deep learning and artificial intelligence, machine learning and data analytics are important assets.
See a Summary table of these three platforms
| Vendor | Strengths | Weaknesses |
|---|---|---|
| AWS | • Dominant position in the market • Extensive, mature offerings • Large organisations support • Extensive training • Global reach | • Difficult to utillize • Management of cost • Overwhelming options |
| Microsoft Azure | • Integration with Microsoft tools and software • Wide collection of features • The second largest infrastructure provider • Hybrid cloud • Support for open source | •Issues with documentation • Incomplete management tooling |
| • Designed for cloud-native businesses • Commitment to open source and portability • Deep discounts and flexible contracts • DevOps expertise | • Late entrant to IaaS market • Fewer features and services • Historically not as enterprise focused |