Comparison of The Giants: Big 3 Cloud Platforms – AWS vs Azure vs GCP

Big 3 Cloud Platforms – AWS vs Azure vs GCP
BY sivtekglobal April 12, 2025

Yesterday, I had the incredible opportunity to attend the inauguration of Asia’s largest Rated 4 data center, launched by CtrlS in Chennai.

This AI-ready Hyperscale Data Center Park sets a new benchmark in the industry, boasting first-of-its-kind features, including a natural disaster-proof design that ensures uninterrupted business operations.

It’s by far one of the most massive and advanced data centers I’ve come across in my career.

The tour was truly inspiring and motivated me to write this article. I hope the insights shared here will help you make informed decisions when choosing the right cloud services for your organization.

The cloud computing market is experiencing rapid growth and is expected to reach $2500 billion by 2030. Within this expansive industry, three major players—Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google Cloud Platform (GCP), and Microsoft Azure—collectively hold 64% of the market share. For many users looking to host a website or application, these hyperscale providers are often the first options considered. While they may appear similar at a glance, each platform comes with its own set of advantages and drawbacks that can significantly influence your cloud costs, ease of use, and overall experience. In this article, we’ll explore the key differences between AWS, GCP, and Azure, and highlight why alternative providers like DigitalOcean might be worth considering when choosing the right cloud solution for your needs.

Overview of the Giants

Cloud computing has transformed how organizations manage their digital operations. Leading the charge are the three dominant cloud service providers: Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP).

As more enterprises transition from traditional on-premises servers to cloud-based or multi-cloud environments, they unlock a wide array of benefits, including:

  • Lower capital expenditures (CapEx)
  • Reduced need for infrastructure maintenance
  • Enhanced availability and reliability
  • On-demand scalability
  • Decreased operational costs
  • Remote access and improved collaboration
  • Compatibility across multiple devices
  • Optimized infrastructure for speed and performance
  • Strengthened security measures
  • Continuous access to the latest technology

Each of the top three cloud providers offers robust, feature-rich platforms backed by years of innovation and experience. But the question remains: which one is right for your business—AWS, Azure, or GCP?

Key Distinctions Between AWS, Azure, and GCP

AWS, Azure, and GCP all deliver similar core computing capabilities, such as virtual machines and serverless architectures. However, each platform brings its own set of distinctive features and specialized services tailored to different business needs. This allows organizations to select the cloud provider that best matches their technical requirements, performance expectations, and budget considerations. Increasingly, companies are also adopting multi-cloud strategies—leveraging a mix of these major providers or combining them with more cost-efficient alternatives like DigitalOcean to optimize flexibility, performance, and cost savings.

Product Offerings: AWS (Amazon Web Services)

AWS delivers a comprehensive suite of cloud computing services, with Amazon EC2 (Elastic Compute Cloud) at the core. EC2 offers highly scalable virtual servers, allowing businesses to tailor compute resources to a wide variety of workloads.

Users can choose from a range of instance types, each designed to optimize performance for specific use cases—whether it’s general-purpose computing, memory-intensive applications, or GPU-accelerated tasks for machine learning and graphics processing.

For serverless computing, AWS offers AWS Lambda, which allows developers to run code in response to events without the need to manage or provision servers—making it ideal for applications that require scalability, efficiency, and automation.

Azure (Microsoft Azure)

Microsoft Azure offers a robust set of computing services, including Azure Virtual Machines, which deliver scalable and flexible virtualized environments tailored to a wide range of workloads.

Azure VMs are available in multiple instance types, optimized for specific needs such as high memory, compute-intensive tasks, or enhanced storage performance—giving businesses the flexibility to match resources with application demands.

For serverless computing, Azure features Azure Functions, enabling developers to execute event-driven code without managing servers or infrastructure. This makes it easy to build scalable, automated applications that respond to real-time events with minimal overhead.

GCP (Google Cloud Platform)

Google Cloud Platform delivers its core computing services through Google Compute Engine, which provides flexible virtual machine instances that can be customized to meet specific workload requirements.

Users can choose from a variety of predefined machine types or create custom machine types to fine-tune CPU and memory configurations based on their exact needs, offering a high degree of resource efficiency.

For serverless computing, GCP offers Google Cloud Functions, a lightweight, event-driven solution that lets developers run code in response to events—without the need to provision or manage any server infrastructure.

Data Centers Across the Globe

Another significant distinction among AWS, Azure, and GCP lies in their data center infrastructure. The global distribution and performance capabilities of these data centers play a vital role in determining the most suitable cloud solution—especially for businesses and developers aiming to optimize speed, availability, and user experience based on geographic demand. Understanding where each provider’s data centers are located can help ensure your application or website is positioned close to its users. Below is a closer look at how AWS, Azure, and GCP compare in terms of the number and global spread of their data centers.

AWS (Amazon Web Services)

AWS boasts an expansive global network, with more than 200 data centers across multiple geographic regions, including North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.

With the largest number of data centers among the three major cloud providers, AWS has a strong presence in key regions such as Northern Virginia, Oregon, and Frankfurt.

This vast data center infrastructure allows businesses to position resources closer to their end-users, minimizing latency and enhancing overall performance.

Azure (Microsoft Azure)

Microsoft Azure operates a vast global network of data centers, offering services in more regions than both AWS and GCP.

The platform continues to expand its data center footprint, maintaining a strong presence across North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Azure’s data centers are seamlessly integrated with Microsoft’s expansive network backbone, providing high-speed data transfer and low-latency connectivity.

GCP (Google Cloud Platform)

Google Cloud Platform operates data centers strategically positioned across multiple regions worldwide, including North America, Europe, Asia, Australia, and South America.

Though GCP has fewer data centers compared to AWS and Azure, it is renowned for its high-performance global network infrastructure.

Leveraging Google’s expertise in network optimization, GCP ensures fast data transfer and low-latency connections, making it a top choice for applications that require minimal delay.

When comparing AWS, Azure, and GCP, it’s important to note that AWS has the largest network of data centers, Azure offers the broadest regional coverage, and GCP excels in high-performance networking with low-latency connections. Businesses should take the geographic distribution of data centers into account when selecting a cloud provider to ensure optimal performance and easy access to data for their target users.

Pricing

Pricing is a critical factor when selecting a cloud provider, as your choice will likely lock you into long-term costs. To ensure you’re making the best decision for your business, it’s essential to compare the pricing structures of the leading cloud platforms—Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). All three providers operate on a pay-as-you-go model, but each has its own pricing nuances, including differences in instance types, storage fees, data transfer charges, and available discounts. Understanding these variations is key to managing your cloud expenses efficiently and ensuring optimal resource allocation. It’s not only important to evaluate pricing based on your current needs, but also to consider how costs will scale as your application or business expands. Below, we’ll explore the pricing differences among these providers as of December 2024—however, make sure to verify the most current pricing on their websites before making your final decision.

AWS (Amazon Web Services)

AWS follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model that provides flexibility and control over costs.

The platform offers a range of instance types, with pricing varying according to performance requirements and resource capacity.

Storage pricing depends on the amount of capacity used and the access patterns, with services like Amazon S3 and Amazon EBS offering different pricing models.

While data ingress (incoming data) is generally free, data egress (outgoing data) incurs charges, typically ranging from $0.05 to $0.09 per GB, depending on volume and region, as well as the specific network interfaces and pricing plans.

Additionally, AWS offers discounts through Reserved Instances and AWS Savings Plans, which require upfront payments for more significant savings.

Azure (Microsoft Azure)

Azure operates on a pay-as-you-go pricing model and provides Reserved VM Instances for those seeking cost savings.

The platform offers various instance families, each optimized for specific workloads.

Storage costs are determined by capacity and usage, with services like Azure Blob Storage and Azure Disk Storage following this pricing structure.

Ingress (incoming data) is typically free, while egress (outgoing data) fees are based on data volume and region.

Azure also offers volume discounts through the Azure Hybrid Benefit, which helps customers save when using existing licenses.

GCP (Google Cloud Platform)

Google Cloud Platform follows a pay-as-you-go pricing model, offering both predefined and custom machine types to suit a range of workloads.

Storage pricing is based on capacity and access frequency, with services like Google Cloud Storage and Google Persistent Disk applying this cost structure.

Data transfer fees depend on the volume of data sent and received across the network.

GCP provides discounts through Committed Use Contracts, where businesses make upfront commitments for one or three years to secure lower rates.

Additionally, GCP offers three support tiers—Basic, Development, and Production—each with different levels of support and response times.

The pricing variations between AWS, Azure, and GCP arise from their distinct approaches to pay-as-you-go models, instance types, storage, data transfer, and discount structures. A thorough evaluation of these factors will help businesses choose the most cost-effective cloud provider for their specific needs.

A Closer Look at the Top Three Cloud Services

AWS: Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Extensive range of services, from networking to robotics
  • Highly mature platform with years of development
  • Known as the gold standard for cloud reliability and security
  • Greater compute capacity compared to Azure and GCP
  • Most major software vendors offer their programs on AWS

Cons:

  • Developer and enterprise support requires an additional purchase
  • Newcomers may find the sheer volume of services and options overwhelming
  • Hybrid cloud options are more limited compared to competitors

Microsoft Azure: Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Seamless integration and migration for businesses using existing Microsoft services
  • Wide range of services, including top-tier AI, ML, and analytics offerings
  • Generally more affordable for many services compared to AWS and GCP
  • Strong support for hybrid cloud strategies

Cons:

  • Fewer service offerings compared to AWS
  • Primarily tailored for enterprise customers

GCP: Pros and Cons

Pros:

  • Seamless integration with other Google services and products
  • Outstanding support for containerized workloads
  • Utilizes a global fiber network for enhanced performance

Cons:

  • Fewer service offerings compared to AWS and Azure
  • Limited support for enterprise-level use cases

Key Takeaways: AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud & My Recommendations:

While AWS currently leads the market in both capacity and services, Microsoft and Google are rapidly expanding their capabilities to challenge this dominance. To compete, they are building more data centers, innovating new services, and introducing fresh options in their packages and pricing structures.

Microsoft is targeting the large enterprise sector to compete with AWS, while Google is setting itself apart with integrated open-source projects and a wide range of third-party services.

So, which cloud provider is the right choice for your company? When comparing Azure, AWS, and GCP, the best option depends on your unique use case. As cloud technologies continue to evolve, many businesses are adopting multi-cloud strategies, leveraging the strengths of each provider without becoming dependent on just one.

Tags: , , ,