The global public cloud computing market is fiercely contested among the big three: AWS vs Azure vs Google, while the domestic market in China is dominated by Alibaba Cloud, Tencent Cloud, and AWS. For Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS), Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP) hold the advantage among numerous cloud companies, followed closely by Alibaba Cloud and Tencent Cloud.

AWS maintains its dominant position. According to John Hinsdale, Chief Analyst at Synergy Research Group, “The cloud services and data centre infrastructure market is truly global, but China is an exception. The global market grows at around 50% annually, while the Chinese market grows at over 70% annually. Despite nearly doubling in size, AWS has maintained a stable market share of around 33% globally for 12 consecutive quarters.”

Meanwhile, Microsoft demonstrates exceptional strength in the Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) arena, and Google Cloud upgraded from the Visionary quadrant to the Leader quadrant in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant in 2018, gaining recognition for its discount offerings and positive growth trajectory.

In terms of market share in China, Alibaba Cloud remains in the lead with a 40.5% market share, followed closely by Tencent Cloud (16.5%). Sinnet (a partner of AWS China) ranks third with 9.7% market share (but another AWS China partner, Westone Data, is not included in the calculation).

Now, let’s compare the major cloud providers:

AWS: With an exponentially growing toolkit, Amazon’s functionality is unparalleled. However, its cost structure can be confusing, and it focuses solely on the public cloud, not hybrid or private clouds, which means interacting with your data centre is not AWS’s top priority.

Microsoft Azure: A close competitor to AWS, Azure boasts excellent cloud infrastructure capabilities. When it comes to enterprise customers, Azure considers how to integrate with existing data centres from an enterprise perspective. However, few companies have the enterprise background of Microsoft (with Windows support). Azure recognises that many customers still operate data centres, and its platform strives to interact with data centres, making hybrid cloud a real advantage.

Google Cloud: Entering the cloud market later than its well-funded competitors, Google may not have immediate appeal to enterprise customers. However, it possesses its own technological strengths, such as industry-leading deep learning, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and data analysis tools

Alibaba Cloud: User-friendly and suitable for small and medium-sized enterprises in China, Alibaba Cloud has numerous customer cases in e-commerce and the Internet of Things (IoT). With a strong presence of domestic data centers, it offers a comprehensive range of products and services. As the leading player in China’s cloud computing market, Alibaba Cloud enjoys a significant market share and industry experience.

Tencent Cloud: Tencent Cloud excels in the gaming and video industries, focusing on building an industry ecosystem. It integrates well with the Tencent Open Platform and has extensive experience with government and enterprise clients, as well as the gaming industry.

Analysis of the major cloud providers:

Many experts suggest that businesses evaluate their public cloud requirements on a case-by-case basis and have the most suitable vendor provide specific applications and workloads. Each leading provider has its own advantages and weaknesses, making them the best choice for certain projects.

Advantages and disadvantages of AWS:

Amazon’s biggest advantage is its dominant position in the public cloud market. Gartner notes that in its Magic Quadrant for “Infrastructure as a Service” (IaaS), “AWS has been the market leader for over a decade.”

One of the reasons for its popularity is undoubtedly its vast business scope. AWS offers a wide range of services, constantly expanding and with the most comprehensive global data centre network. Gartner’s report concludes that AWS is the most mature enterprise cloud provider with the deepest functionality for managing a large number of users and resources.

Amazon’s weakness lies in cost. While AWS regularly lowers its prices, many companies find it challenging to understand their cost structures and effectively manage those costs when running a significant workload on the service. However, overall, Amazon’s strengths outweigh these drawbacks, and enterprises of all scales continue to use AWS for various workloads.

Advantages and disadvantages of Azure:

Microsoft entered the cloud market relatively late but experienced rapid growth with its existing customer base that already used Microsoft software such as Windows Server, Office, SQL Server, SharePoint, Active Directory, .NET, and other tools being repurposed for the cloud.

One significant reason for Azure’s success is the deployment of Windows and other Microsoft software by so many enterprises. As Azure integrates tightly with other applications, businesses that heavily rely on Microsoft software often find it logical to use Azure as well. This builds loyalty among existing Microsoft customers. Additionally, significant discount services are expected for customers who are already Microsoft enterprise clients.

On the downside, Gartner identified some shortcomings in the platform. “While Microsoft Azure is an enterprise-ready platform, Gartner clients report that Microsoft, despite its long history as an enterprise vendor, falls short on service experience compared to their expectations of an enterprise-ready provider. Clients cited issues with technology support, documentation, training, and breadth of the ISV partner ecosystem.”

Advantages and disadvantages of Google Cloud:

Google excels in containers, and since it developed the Kubernetes standard (used by services provided by AWS and Azure), GCP focuses on products such as big data, analytics, and machine learning. It also offers considerable load balancing at scale.

On the downside, Google ranks third in market share (significantly behind the second-place provider), perhaps because it doesn’t offer as many different services and features as AWS and Azure. Although it is rapidly expanding, it doesn’t have as many global data centres as AWS or Azure.

Gartner states that customers often choose GCP as a secondary provider rather than a strategic one, although GCP is increasingly being chosen by customers with a focus on open source or DevOps as a strategic alternative to the less cloud-dependent Microsoft.

Overall, the choice of a cloud provider depends on the specific needs and priorities of a business, considering factors such as functionality, cost, integration capabilities, and support services.

Advantages and disadvantages of Alibaba Cloud (Formerly named Aliyun):

Alibaba Cloud holds the top position in the domestic market and is the leading cloud computing provider in China. It has developed the Feitian operating system, a large-scale universal cloud computing platform that serves globally. Alibaba Cloud’s product offerings are also quite extensive compared to other domestic vendors, and it has a significant number of data centres in China.

One disadvantage is that Alibaba Cloud has fewer overseas data centres, so it lacks a significant advantage when compared to other international giants in terms of quantity and pricing.

Advantages and disadvantages of Tencent Cloud:

As the second-largest cloud provider in China, Tencent Cloud offers even more competitive pricing advantages compared to Alibaba Cloud. It has accumulated industry experience in areas such as social media and gaming.

One area that needs improvement is that Tencent Cloud offers fewer product categories compared to other providers, and its overseas resources are not as abundant.

Comparison of compute services:

AWS:

Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): Amazon’s flagship compute service is EC2, which allows users to “securely and resizable compute capacity in the cloud.” EC2 offers diverse options, including various instance types supporting Windows and Linux, bare metal instances, GPU instances, high-performance computing, auto-scaling, and more. Amazon also provides an EC2 free tier for 12 months, offering 750 hours per month.

Container services: The use of multi-container services in computing is growing, and it includes various options like Docker, Kubernetes, Amazon’s own Fargate service (a server-less compute engine for containers), a private cloud option called Lightsail, Batch for batch computing jobs, Elastic Beanstalk for running and auto-scaling web applications, and other services.

Azure:

Virtual Machines: Microsoft’s primary compute service is called Virtual Machines, which supports Linux, Windows Server, SQL Server, Oracle, IBM, and SAP. It offers enhanced security, hybrid cloud capabilities, and integration support for Microsoft software. Similar to AWS, Microsoft provides a wide range of available instance types, including GPU and high-performance computing options, as well as instances optimised for AI and machine learning. It also has a free tier that allows for 750 hours per month of Windows or Linux B1S virtual machines within one year.

Additional services: Microsoft’s autoscaling feature is called Virtual Machine Scale Sets. It has two container services: Azure Container Service based on Kubernetes, and Container Instances for managing containers with Docker Hub and Azure Container Registry. There is also a Batch service, Cloud Services for scalable web applications similar to AWS Elastic Beanstalk, and a unique service called Service Fabric designed for applications with a micro services architecture.

Google:

Compute Engine: Google’s main compute service is called Compute Engine. It offers custom and predefined machine types, billing by the second, support for Linux and Windows, and notable energy-saving features with half the energy consumption of traditional data centres. Google also provides a free tier (free usage of f1-micro instances for 12 months).

Focus on Kubernetes: Google offers the Kubernetes Engine service for enterprises intending to deploy containers. Setting up Kubernetes is a way to provide container services and micro services, which all leading cloud providers do. Google has been heavily involved in the Kubernetes project and offers additional expert services.

Alibaba Cloud:

Compute services: Alibaba Cloud has a rich product line for compute services, including Elastic Compute Service, Elastic Scaling Service, and Load Balancer. Its X-Dragon architecture is also a key selling point for compute services.

Container services: Alibaba Cloud provides strong support for K8S container services and Container Service for Kubernetes.

Tencent Cloud:

Compute Services: Tencent Cloud offers standard cloud servers, GPU cloud servers, FPGA cloud servers, and more. They have invested heavily in research and development as well as practical applications to assist users in leveraging cloud computing. Compared to other vendors, Tencent Cloud may have relatively fewer types of compute instances.

Cutting-edge Cloud Products:

Looking ahead, experts believe that emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, the Internet of Things (IoT), and server-less computing will be key areas of differentiation for cloud providers. All three leading cloud providers, including Tencent Cloud, have already begun experimenting with products in these areas and may expand their service offerings in the coming year.

Alibaba Cloud:  (Translation for the image above)
· Cloud Server ECS
· Load balancing
· Elastic expansion
· Container Service
· Container Service for Kubernetes
· Container Mirroring Service
· Batch calculation
· Elastic High Performance Computing
· Lightweight application server
· Graphics workstation
· Elastic Container Instance ECI

Tencent Cloud: (Translation for the image above)
· Cloud Server
· GPU cloud server
· FPGA cloud server
· Dedicated host machine
· Blackstone Physical Server 2.0
· Container Service
· Container instance service
· Elastic expansion

AWS:

Sagemaker to Server-less: AWS has the longest list of services in each of the mentioned areas. Highlights include their SageMaker service for training and deploying machine learning models, the Lex conversational interface for their Alexa service, Greengrass IoT messaging service, and Lambda server-less computing service.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning: Among numerous AI-focused services, AWS offers DeepLens, an AI-powered camera for developing and deploying algorithms like machine learning optical character recognition, image recognition, and object recognition. AWS also announced Gluon, an open-source deep learning library aimed at enabling developers and non-developers to easily build and train neural networks without AI programming knowledge.

Azure:

Cognitive Services: Microsoft invests heavily in artificial intelligence and provides machine learning services and robotics services on Azure. They also offer cognitive services, including Bing Web Search API, Text Analytics API, Face API, Computer Vision API, and Custom Vision Service. For IoT, they have multiple management and analytics services, and their serverless computing service is called “Functions.”

Support for Self-Software: Many of Azure’s top tools revolve around supporting on-premises Microsoft software design. Azure Backup is a service that connects Windows Server 2012 R2 and Windows Server 2016 for server backups. Visual Studio Team Services hosts Visual Studio projects on Azure.

Google:

Big on AI: For the Google Cloud Platform, artificial intelligence and machine learning are focal areas. Google holds a leading position in AI development due to its open-source software library TensorFlow for building machine learning applications. TensorFlow is also highly popular, to the extent that AWS recently added support for TensorFlow.

IoT to Server-less: Google Cloud offers powerful natural language, speech, translation, and other functionalities in its APIs. Additionally, it provides IoT and server-less services, although some are still in the testing phase.

Alibaba Cloud:

AI: Alibaba Cloud, with its ET Brain as the foundation, has developed multiple AI solutions such as ET Industrial Brain, ET Agricultural Brain, ET Environmental Brain, and ET Medical Brain, along with over 50 AI products.

Tencent Cloud:

Big Data: Tencent Cloud has developed a comprehensive system of big data infrastructure services, data applications, and AI. They offer a wide range of technical products, allowing users to leverage cloud computing resources more effectively.

Price Comparison:

Comparing the pricing of these three cloud leaders is challenging, but we can provide a general overview.

AWS: Amazon’s pricing can be particularly intricate. While they do provide a cost calculator, the numerous variables involved make it difficult to obtain accurate estimates. Gartner suggests that Amazon’s granular pricing structure is complex and strongly advises using third-party cost management tools.

Azure: Microsoft’s pricing is also not easy to comprehend due to their complex software licensing options and usage-based discounts. Without external assistance and extensive experience, understanding their pricing structure can be challenging.

Google: In contrast, Google positions its pricing as a differentiating factor. Their aim is to offer “customer-friendly” pricing that beats other cloud providers. Gartner notes that Google attempts to win projects from customers who currently spend substantial amounts with their cloud competitors by offering significant discounts and highly flexible contracts.

Alibaba Cloud: Unlike other providers, Alibaba Cloud follows a prepaid payment model. In terms of pricing, it may be cheaper in domestic regions compared to foreign providers but relatively more expensive compared to domestic competitors. However, there is significant pricing discount potential.

Tencent Cloud: Tencent Cloud has a competitive advantage in terms of pricing compared to Alibaba Cloud, and they also offer coupons and discounts specifically for startups.

Key Takeaway: Companies focused on cost when selecting a cloud provider need to analyse each project based on specific circumstances to choose the best provider. Additionally, due to vendors frequently adjusting prices, it may be necessary to reassess these calculations regularly.

As mentioned earlier, the best public cloud provider for your company will depend on your specific needs and workloads. In fact, the best provider for certain projects may not be the best for others. Many experts believe that most businesses will invest heavily in a multi-cloud approach. Implementing a multi-cloud strategy can help avoid vendor lock-in and utilise the most suitable services for respective workloads.

AWS: Choosing AWS means access to its extensive set of tools and services, as well as massive data capabilities. The only reason not to choose Amazon would be if you want more personalised services tailored specifically to your development. Due to its scale, Amazon may find it challenging to establish close relationships with every customer, but there are distributors and consultants who can provide focused support. Additionally, AWS offers support programs and higher quotas for startups and educational initiatives.

Azure: Microsoft’s biggest appeal for enterprises lies in its familiarity with Microsoft software. All existing .NET code can continue to run on Azure, and it’s easy to migrate on-premises applications to the cloud by connecting the server environment to Azure. Furthermore, Azure’s deep understanding of hybrid cloud helps bridge traditional data centre environments with rapidly scalable (and feature-rich) Microsoft cloud services.

Google: Google Cloud has been rapidly growing but is still catching up. As a search giant, it doesn’t have the same experience working with traditional enterprises. However, Google is fully committed and investing billions of dollars in the cloud domain, and its partnership with Cisco may surprise those who previously had reservations about Google Cloud. Google has its strengths, such as building machine learning components on Google Cloud.

Alibaba Cloud: If your end users are primarily in China and you need to deploy all your infrastructure resources within China, Alibaba Cloud could be a good choice. It has numerous data centres and a wide range of product categories.

Tencent Cloud: Tencent Cloud has better ecosystem support and integration for industries like live streaming, gaming, and social media.

Please note that the best cloud provider for your company depends on your specific requirements and workload. It’s recommended to analyse each project based on its individual needs to select the most suitable provider. Additionally, implementing a multi-cloud strategy can be beneficial to avoid vendor lock-in and leverage the best services for each workload.

Reference: https://www.datamation.com/cloud-computing/AWS-vs-Azure-vs-google-cloud-comparison.html