‍What are the Differences between Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform?

‍What are the Differences between Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform?

The choice of cloud-based services depends on the specific needs and requirements of a client’s project or organization. Sabal Tech would have to evaluate the client’s needs, requirements, budget constraints and desired outcomes in order to determine the best and most effective solution of services that would work best for our client. 

Sabal Tech would provide an initial assessment, reviewing all client requirements and budget constraints to identify the best design solution, before providing a detailed proposal for our clients to review. Upon review, the client requests further changes or information before Sabal Tech finalizes the proposal incorporating all requested changes allowing the client to make an informed decision. 

Sabal Tech ensures our clients receive tailored solutions that meet our client’s needs while also being cost-effective. Additionally, we foster clear communication and collaboration between Sabal Tech and our clients throughout the decision-making process.

Here are some factors to consider when selecting cloud-based services for each cloud platform:

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) offers hundreds of cloud computing services that cater to businesses and developers. Here is a list of just some of the services offered:

1. Compute:

• Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud): Provides resizable compute capacity in the cloud, allowing users to quickly scale up or down based on demand.
• AWS Lambda: Allows running code without provisioning or managing servers, offering a serverless computing platform.
• AWS ECS: Simply launch, monitor, and scale your application across flexible compute options with automatic integrations to other supporting AWS services that your application needs.

2. Storage:

• Amazon S3 (Simple Storage Service): Offers scalable object storage with industry-leading durability, availability, and performance.
• Amazon EBS (Elastic Block Store): Provides block-level storage volumes for EC2 instances, suitable for databases and other I/O-intensive applications.
• Amazon EFS (Elastic File System): Provides a serverless, fully elastic file storage that automatically grows and shrinks as you add and remove files with no need for management or provisioning.

3. Database:

• Amazon RDS (Relational Database Service): Manages relational databases in the cloud, supporting various engines like MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, and others.
• Amazon DynamoDB: A fully managed NoSQL database service for applications requiring low-latency data access at any scale.

4. Networking:

• Amazon VPC (Virtual Private Cloud): Lets users provision a logically isolated section of the AWS Cloud, controlling network configuration, IP addressing, and security settings.
• Amazon Route 53: A scalable Domain Name System (DNS) web service designed to route end users to internet applications.

5. Security and Identity:

• AWS IAM (Identity and Access Management): Helps securely control access to AWS services and resources.
• Amazon Cognito: Provides authentication, authorization, and user management for web and mobile apps.

6. Analytics:

• Amazon Redshift: A fully managed data warehousing service for analyzing large datasets using SQL queries.
• Amazon Athena: Allows querying data in S3 using standard SQL without the need for infrastructure management.

7. Machine Learning:

• Amazon SageMaker: A fully managed service for building, training, and deploying machine learning models.
• Amazon Comprehend: A natural language processing (NLP) service for analyzing text and extracting insights.

8. Internet of Things (IoT):

• AWS IoT Core: Provides secure communication and data processing for connected devices at scale.
• Amazon FreeRTOS: An operating system for microcontrollers that makes small, low-power edge devices easy to program, deploy, secure, connect, and manage.

9. Containers:

• Amazon ECS (Elastic Container Service): A highly scalable, high-performance container orchestration service.
• Amazon EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service): A managed Kubernetes service for deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications.

Microsoft Azure

Microsoft Azure offers cloud computing services for building, deploying, and managing applications and services through Microsoft's global network of data centers. Here is a list of just some of the services offered:

1. Compute:

• Virtual Machines (VMs): Offers scalable computing capacity in the cloud, allowing users to deploy Windows or Linux-based virtual machines.
• Azure Functions: Provides serverless compute service that allows running event-triggered code without managing infrastructure.
• Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS): A managed Kubernetes service for deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications using Kubernetes.

2. Storage:

• Azure Blob Storage: Scalable object storage for unstructured data.
• Azure Files: Managed file shares in the cloud.
• Azure Disk Storage: Persistent, high-performance block storage for Azure virtual machines.

3. Databases:

• Azure SQL Database: Fully managed relational database service with built-in intelligence.
• Azure Cosmos DB: Globally distributed, multi-model database service for building highly responsive and scalable applications.
• Azure Database for MySQL/PostgreSQL: Fully managed MySQL and PostgreSQL database services.

4. Networking:

• Azure Virtual Network: Allows users to create private networks in the cloud with granular control over IP addressing, routing, and security.
• Azure Load Balancer: Distributes incoming network traffic across multiple VMs to ensure high availability and reliability.
• Azure VPN Gateway: Establishes secure, cross-premises connections between Azure and on-premises infrastructure.

5. Security and Identity:

• Azure Active Directory (AAD): Provides identity and access management services for securing applications and resources in the cloud.
• Azure Security Center: Provides unified security management and advanced threat protection across hybrid cloud workloads.
• Azure Key Vault: Safeguards cryptographic keys and secrets used by cloud applications and services.

6. Analytics:

• Azure Synapse Analytics: An integrated analytics service for big data processing and data warehousing.
• Azure HDInsight: Fully managed Apache Hadoop, Spark, and other big data analytics services.
• Azure Data Lake Storage: Scalable and secure data lake storage for big data analytics.

7. Machine Learning:

• Azure Machine Learning: Provides a cloud-based environment for developing, training, and deploying machine learning models.
• Azure Cognitive Services: Offers pre-built AI models for vision, speech, language, and decision-making capabilities.
• Azure Bot Service: Enables building, testing, and deploying intelligent bots that interact with users across multiple channels.

8. Internet of Things (IoT):

• Azure IoT Hub: Securely connects, monitors, and manages IoT devices at scale.
• Azure IoT Central: Fully managed IoT application platform for rapidly building and deploying solutions without requiring expertise in cloud or IoT.

9. Containers:

• Azure Container Instances (ACI): Offers a serverless container service that enables deploying containers on-demand without managing servers or VMs.
• Azure Container Registry: Provides a private registry for storing and managing container images.

Google Cloud Platform

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) offers a wide range of cloud computing services designed to help businesses build, deploy, and scale applications. Here is a list of just some of the services offered:

1. Compute:

• Compute Engine: Provides virtual machines (VMs) on Google's infrastructure, allowing users to run workloads with scalable and customizable compute capacity.
• Google Cloud Functions: Runs code in the cloud with no servers or containers to manage scalable, pay-as-you-go functions as a service (FaaS) product.
• Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE): A managed Kubernetes service for orchestrating containerized applications, offering automated scaling and monitoring.

2. Storage:

• Cloud Storage: Offers scalable and durable object storage suitable for storing data such as files, images, and backups.
• Cloud SQL: Fully managed relational database service supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, and SQL Server databases.
• Cloud Spanner: A globally distributed, horizontally scalable relational database service for mission-critical applications.

3. Databases:

• BigQuery: Serverless, highly scalable, and cost-effective data warehouse for analytics and business intelligence.
• Firestore: A scalable NoSQL document database for web, mobile, and server development.
• Cloud Bigtable: A fully managed NoSQL database service for large analytical and operational workloads.

4. Networking:

• Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): Provides networking functionality for GCP resources, including isolation, subnets, and routing.
• Cloud Load Balancing: Offers global load balancing for HTTP(S), TCP/SSL, and UDP traffic, ensuring high availability and performance.
• Cloud CDN: A content delivery network service for delivering content to users with low latency and high data transfer speeds.

5. Security and Identity:

• Identity and Access Management (IAM): Manages access control for GCP resources, allowing fine-grained permission management.
• Cloud Identity-Aware Proxy (IAP): Controls access to cloud applications based on user identity and context.
• Cloud Key Management Service (KMS): Provides a centralized key management service for cryptographic keys used to protect data.

6. Analytics:

• Dataflow: A fully managed stream and batch processing service for ingesting, transforming, and analyzing data in real-time.
• BigQuery ML: Integrates machine learning models directly into BigQuery for predictive analytics.
• Looker: A business intelligence and data analytics platform for exploring and visualizing data.

7. Machine Learning:

• AI Platform: A unified platform for building, training, and deploying machine learning models at scale.
• Cloud Vision API: Offers pre-trained models for image recognition and analysis.
• Cloud Natural Language API: Provides natural language understanding to analyze text and extract insights.

8. Internet of Things (IoT):

• Cloud IoT Core: A fully managed service for securely connecting, managing, and ingesting data from IoT devices at scale.
• Cloud IoT Edge: Extends Google Cloud's capabilities to the edge, allowing processing of IoT data closer to the source.

9. Containers:

• Anthos: A hybrid and multi-cloud platform that enables application modernization and management across on-premises, GCP, and other clouds.
• Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE): A managed Kubernetes service for deploying, managing, and scaling containerized applications.