In the modern world, where every organization is becoming increasingly digitalized, public cloud forms the key and is the most important foundation for a business’s success.
The worldwide public cloud services market is projected to grow 17.3 percent in 2019 to total $206.2 billion, up from $175.8 billion in 2018, according to Gartner, Inc.
There are many cloud solutions and a number of cloud providers but choosing the right public cloud provider basically depends upon the needs of your enterprise. If only you had a cloud comparison tool!
On the enterprise and mid-market level, industry-leading cloud solutions are provided by Microsoft, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, IBM, Oracle and Alibaba Cloud. We have included Microsoft, AWS, Google, Alibaba Cloud and IBM in this post as these five are the leading tech players. However, we plan to include others too very soon.
The purpose of this blog and the cloud comparison tool is to cover the breadth of services these leading cloud providers offer, at a single place as the services, features and pricing of all of them are so varied that comparing them is like comparing apples to oranges. We have included not only the basic IaaS services – compute, networking and storage in the cloud comparison tool, but have also included optional/other cloud services that these providers offer to value-add.
The services include Platform as a Service (PaaS) and Software as a Service (SaaS) that include, but are not limited to Disaster Recovery, Backup, Content Delivery Network (CDN), DevOps, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things (IoT) etc.
We have also covered the security standards, pricing terms, software supported and more of these cloud providers as these capabilities also play to their advantage and help them differentiate themselves in this highly competitive market, in this cloud comparison tool blog. The aim of this cloud comparison tool blog is to help the decision-makers get all the needed information about different services offered by these hyperscale service providers in a single place.
However, if you want to know which cloud provider offers all the services you need, you should try this convenient cloud services comparison tool. Once you check the services, you will know which provider offers them and which doesn’t, from this tool. This transparency helps you to:
- Do proper provider evaluation and selection, based on the services, regions, support, certifications etc.
- Save time by quickly selecting the most appropriate services, as all offerings are in one place.
- Get cost optimization and savings.
- Plan for the future by seeing which provider provides services you may need in the future.
Don’t take our word for it, try this cloud comparison tool yourself!
Features and Services: Different services that the leading cloud providers offer have been mentioned in the cloud comparison tool below. You can click and go to respective pages to check each service.
Cloud Comparison Tool: AWS Vs Google Vs IBM Vs Microsoft Vs Alibaba Cloud
OPERATING SYSTEMS SUPPORTED
| Area | AWS | GCP | IBM Cloud | Azure | Alibaba Cloud |
| Windows | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SLES | Yes | Yes |  |
Yes | Yes |
| CentOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CoreOS | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| RHEL | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CloudLinux | Yes | |
Yes | |
|
| OpenSUSE | Yes | Yes | |
Yes | Yes |
| FreeBSD | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Ubuntu | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Debian | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Vyatta | Yes | |
Yes | |
|
| Oracle Linux | Yes | |
|
Yes | |
PRICING TERMS
| Area | AWS | GCP | IBM Cloud | Azure | Alibaba Cloud |
| Purchase Term | 1- year or 3 – year | 1- year or 3 – year : Committed Use Discounts | Hourly or Monthly Commitment | 1- year or 3 – year | 1 year or 3 year
Reserved Instances, Pay as you go, subscription, Preemptible Instances |
| No commitment needed: use resources for more than 25% of a month | |||||
| Payment Option: No Upfront | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
Yes |
| Payment Option: Partial Upfront | Yes | |
Yes | |
Yes |
| Payment Option: All Upfront | Yes | |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Buying Factors | Region, instance family, Operating System and network type | Region, family, Operating System and network type | |
Azure region, virtual machine type, size and term | Operating System, Region, Network Type |
CERTIFICATIONS
| Area | AWS | GCP | IBM Cloud | Azure | Alibaba Cloud |
| CSA (Cloud Security Alliance Controls) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ISO 9001 (Global Quality Standard) | Yes | |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ISO 27001 (Security Management Controls) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ISO 27017 (Cloud Specific Controls) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ISO 22301 (Business Continuity management Controls) | |
|
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ISO 27018 (Personal Data Protection) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ISO 31000 (Risk Management Practices) | |
|
Yes | |
|
| EU Model Clauses | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| PCI DSS Level 1 (Payment Card Industry Security Standards) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 1 (Audit Controls Report) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 2 (Security, Availability & Confidentiality Report) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| SOC 3 (General Controls Report) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| HITRUST (Health Information Trust Alliance) | |
Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| GDPR | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| CJIS (Criminal Justice Information Services) | Yes | |
Yes | Yes | |
| DoD SRG (DoD Data Processing) | Yes | |
Yes | Yes | |
| FedRAMP (Government Data Standards) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| FIPS (Government Security Standards) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| FERPA (Educational Privacy Act) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| FFIEC (Federal Financial Institutions Regulation) | Yes | |
Yes | Yes | |
| HIPAA (Protected Health Information) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| ITAR (International Arms Regulations) | Yes | |
Yes | Yes | |
| GxP (Quality Guidelines & Regulations) | Yes | |
Yes | Yes | Yes |
| MPAA (Protected Media Content) | Yes | Yes | |
Yes | Yes |
| NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| FISMA (Federal Information Security Management) | Yes | |
Yes | Yes | |
| EU-US Privacy Shield | |
Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| FISC (Japan) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| IRAP (Australia) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| K-ISMS (Korea) | Yes | |
|
|
|
| MTCS Tier3 (Singapore) | Yes | Yes | |
Yes | Yes |
| My Number Act (Japan) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| C5 (Germany) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Cyber Essentials Plus (UK) | Yes | Yes | |
Yes | |
| ENS High (Spain) | Yes | Yes | |
Yes | |
| G – Cloud (UK) | Yes | |
Yes | Yes | |
| IT-Grundschutz (Germany) | Yes | |
|
Yes | |
| TISAX (Automotive Industry Standard) | Yes | |
|
|
Yes |
SLA AVAILABILITY
COMPUTE
STORAGE
DATABASE
CONTENT DELIVERY AND NETWORKING
| Area | AWS | GCP | IBM Cloud | Azure | Alibaba Cloud |
| Cloud virtual networking | Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) | Google Virtual Private Cloud (VPC) | VLANs | Virtual Network | Virtual Private Cloud |
| Content delivery network | CloudFront | Google Cloud CDN | Content Delivery Network | Azure Content Delivery Network | Alibaba Cloud CDN |
| Domain name system management | Route 53 | Google Cloud DNS | DNS | Azure DNS | Alibaba Cloud DNS |
| Traffic Manager | |||||
| Cross – premise connectivity | AWS VPN CloudHub | Cloud VPN | VPN | Azure VPN Gateway | VPN Gateway |
| Dedicated network | Direct Connect | Google Cloud Interconnect | Direct Link | ExpressRoute | Express Connect |
| Load balancing | Classic Load Balancer | Google Cloud Load Balancing | Load Balancer | Load Balancer | Server Load Balancer |
| Network Load Balancer | Application Gateway | ||||
| Application Load Balancer |
INTERNET OF THINGS
ANALYTICS AND BIG DATA
INTELLIGENCE
IDENTITY, ACCESS AND SECURITY
MONITORING AND MANAGEMENT
DEVELOPER TOOLS
ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION
| Area | AWS | GCP | IBM Cloud | Azure | Alibaba Cloud |
| Content management in cloud | |
Google Sites | Enterprise Content Management | SharePoint Online | |
| Google Docs | |||||
| Enterprise app integration | |
Google App Engine | IBM WebSphere | Logic Apps | |
| Commercial PaaS – IaaS- DBaaS framework | |
|
IBM Cloud Private | Azure Stack | |
| Enterprise application services | |
Google Enterprise Search | IBM offers Microsoft Consulting services for Dynamics 365, SharePoint and Office 365. | Dynamics 365 | Message Notification Service
|
| Work Mail | G Suite | IBM Notes | Office 365 | Direct Mail | |
| Work Docs | Blockchain as a Service |
MOBILE SERVICES
| Area | AWS | GCP | IBM Cloud | Azure | Alibaba Cloud |
| Pro App Development | Mobile Hub | Mobile App Backend Services | IBM Watson products App ID | Mobile Apps | |
| Cognito | Xamarin Apps | ||||
| Mobile SDK | AAD B2C | ||||
| Analytics | Mobile Analytics | Mobile Solutions | Mobile Foundation | Visual Studio App Center | |
| Application Insights | |||||
| Enterprise Mobility Management | |
Endpoint Management | IBM® MaaS360® with Watson Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) | Intune | |
| Real -time Data Queries | AppSync | Mobile Solutions | Mobile Analytics | Mobile Apps | |
Help us improve this cloud services comparison tool. Share your feedback in the comments section.
Disclaimer: This article aims to provide information about the cloud services of different vendors for general informational purpose only. Vendors may change their product or service pricing and features from time to time. It’s therefore advised in the interest of the website visitor that before taking a decision or making a purchase, updated information should be verified from the respective vendor’s site. This information has been sourced from the vendor websites and relevant resources available in the public domain as on September 2020. Though we make best endeavors to ensure that the information is accurate and up to date, we do not guarantee its 100% accuracy or timeliness.
ENTERPRISE INTEGRATION:
Microsoft will use this to overtake AWS, mainly the Office365 or better Microsoft365.
Needs an update for the IBM column:
– payments for a subscription can be upfront, full or partially.
– Backup: https://cloud.ibm.com/catalog/infrastructure/cloud-backup
– Relational Databases: DB2 etc missing, see https://cloud.ibm.com/catalog?category=databases
– NoSQL: MongoDB ect missing, see https://cloud.ibm.com/catalog?category=databases
– Data discovery: SQL Query https://cloud.ibm.com/catalog/services/sql-query
– Programattic access: CLI and API are available, also Terraform and Helm support
– Text2Speech/Speech2Text: Watson services
–
Thanks for your feedback, Mr Bart. 🙂 The points have been taken care of.
Thank you, Jyotsana Gupta, for putting together everything in cloud comparison tool. I think you have covered all the major points in this article, I will share this with my network as well. Keep it up!
It is great blog post. Helpful and Informative. Thanks for sharing these information with us.