AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud—Comparison for cloud beginners

When we talk about cloud computing, it’s impossible not to mention the big three—Amazon Web Services (AWS), Azure, and Google Cloud. While they all share many features, each brings something unique to the table. Understanding the subtle differences between them can help you find the best solution for your specific needs and use case.

In this AWS vs. Azure vs. Google Cloud comparison, we’ll explore the key distinctions between the three providers across aspects like global infrastructure, range of services, and use cases. We’ll also share some real-world customer experiences to illustrate how each platform has helped businesses achieve their goals. 

And to help you plan and visualize your cloud architecture, we’ll introduce Miro, a powerful diagramming platform with helpful features and templates for mapping out environments across AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud.

AWS vs. Google Cloud vs. Microsoft Azure—A quick overview

Before we dive into the differences between AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud, let’s take a quick look at each platform and see what makes it stand out.

What is AWS?

Amazon Web Services (AWS) is the oldest of the big three and has been around since 2006. It has built a reputation as a reliable, comprehensive, and secure platform that emphasizes innovation in all areas of cloud computing—from security and serverless solutions to the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine learning.

One of the many reasons AWS is so popular is its extensive offering. With hundreds of services and features, AWS covers virtually all types of use cases and helps customers of all sizes and industries, from startups to public sector organizations.

Some of AWS’ most popular services are:

• Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2): Amazon’s cloud computing platform that gives you access to over 750 types of virtual instances. With its fantastic flexibility, you can customize the processor, storage, operating system, networking, and purchase model according to your needs.

• Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3): AWS’ object storage service that offers scalability, availability, high performance, and top-notch security. You can choose from various cost-effective storage classes, store virtually any amount of data, effortlessly build data lakes, and much more.

• Amazon Relational Database Service (RDS): AWS’ relational database service that automates tasks such as database provisioning, backing up, configuring, and patching. With RDS, you can create and customize a new database within minutes.

• Amazon Virtual Private Cloud (VPC): AWS’ virtual network that’s logically isolated from other virtual networks in the cloud. It gives you complete control over your environment and enhances security. 

What is Azure?

Although the youngest of the three providers we’re discussing, Azure has quickly become one of the most appreciated names in the cloud industry. Developed by Microsoft, Azure has built a strong reputation thanks to high-quality products, especially its hybrid cloud solutions. 

Like AWS, Azure offers versatility, but its features, like advanced analytics and robust hybrid cloud capabilities, are more oriented toward supporting enterprises. Another user group that typically benefits from Azure are businesses already using Microsoft products. Since the cloud provider is part of Microsoft’s ecosystem, it integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft solutions.

Here are a few of Azure’s flagship services:

• Azure Virtual Machines (VMs): A service that lets you create Windows and Linux virtual machines in seconds. With automatic scaling, rapid backup and restore, and built-in performance monitoring, you can manage your VMs with confidence.

• Azure Content Delivery Network (CDN): Azure’s global network of edge servers that cache and deliver content to users worldwide. It lets you save bandwidth, boost responsiveness, and reduce load time for your website or app.

• Azure Backup: It lets you manage backups at scale from a central location. With Azure Backup, you can protect data against ransomware and prevent accidental data loss while optimizing costs.

• Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory): Azure’s cloud identity and access management solution that lets you manage user identities and control access to apps, whether in the cloud or on-premises.

What is Google Cloud?

Google Cloud is a suite of cloud computing services built on the same infrastructure Google uses for its other world-famous products, including Gmail and the Google search engine.

Google Cloud offers versatility—you can build and manage all kinds of apps on it with ease. With built-in security and a user-friendly design, Google Cloud could be a good fit for individuals who don’t have extensive technical expertise but want to reap the benefits of cloud computing.

These are some of Google Cloud’s most widely used services:

• Cloud Run: It lets you build and run containerized apps without having to worry about managing the underlying infrastructure. As you can write code using any language, framework, and library, you can enjoy incredible flexibility.

• BigQuery: This is Google Cloud’s fully managed serverless enterprise data warehouse. With support for all data types and open formats and built-in machine learning, BigQuery helps you extract maximum value from your data.

• Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE): It lets you deploy, manage, and scale containerized apps using Kubernetes (an open-source container orchestration platform). With GKE, you can put your containers on autopilot even if you’re not skilled in Kubernetes.

• Google Compute Engine: The service enables you to create and run virtual machines on a reliable infrastructure. You can choose from present machine types or customize your own for more flexibility.

Amazon Web Services vs. Google Cloud vs. Azure: Key differences

In this AWS vs. Google Cloud vs. Microsoft Azure comparison, we’ll focus on more general areas, such as their infrastructures, scopes of services, and pricing, to help you find a provider that aligns with your priorities.

Global infrastructure

When we talk about cloud global infrastructure, we refer to a complex network of mutually connected data centers that deliver cloud computing services to end users. This widespread infrastructure allows users in the most remote areas of our planet to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing.

Well-constructed global infrastructures also offer excellent security and ensure that users can use cloud computing without interruptions or lags. Every global infrastructure is comprised of components such as:

1. Regions: Separate geographic areas that contain data centers

2. Availability zones (AZs): Data centers within regions

Considering that the three cloud providers we’re discussing are industry leaders, it’s no surprise they all have extensive global infrastructures. Still, there are differences in the number of data centers worldwide, and here’s an overview:

While AWS has the lowest number of Regions and AZs, its global infrastructure is known for being incredibly resilient and secure. Here’s why:

• Strategic deployment of AZs for quick disaster recovery and minimal delays

• Over 700 Points of Presence (POPs) to deliver content to users faster

• Constant infrastructure monitoring for maximum security

• Ultra-fast fiber-optic connections that enable high network quality and minimal interruptions

Scope of services

The scope of services a cloud provider offers is an essential factor to consider because:

1. A high number of available services ensures you’ll easily find a solution for your business needs, no matter how specific they are.

2. You’ll enjoy more scalability, as you’ll be able to effortlessly add extra services to your system as you grow.

3. You may be able to save money, as you can use specific tools for specific tasks instead of paying for services that only partially meet your needs.

In this area, AWS easily takes the win—the platform offers over 200 fully featured services. In total, the cloud provider has 300+ products and services divided into 22 categories. From popular services for computing, storage, and networking to those belonging to the robotics category, AWS offers unmatched product diversity.

Azure takes the second place, with over 200 cloud-based products and cloud services focusing on:

• Virtual computing

• Data storage

• Networking

• Databases

• Analytics

• AI

Google Cloud comes in third, with over 150 services divided into 11 categories. While it does offer similar “basic” services for computing, networking, storage, and databases like AWS and Azure, Google Cloud lacks some options you may find essential. 

For example, AWS and Azure have dedicated services for building games. In AWS, that’s GameLift, and in Azure, that’s PlayFab. Google Cloud does advertise itself as a solution for building and scaling games, but it doesn’t have dedicated features for it.

Market share

Market share indicates a platform’s maturity and popularity. You should seek a provider with a larger market share, as this shows its reliability and makes it a safe bet.

AWS leads in this aspect as well—according to Statista, the cloud provider’s worldwide market share in the fourth quarter of 2024 was 33%. The runner-up was Microsoft Azure, which controlled 20% of the entire market. The third place went to Google Cloud, with a market share of 10%.

Use cases

Since all three cloud providers offer hundreds of services and features, they are quite versatile and can meet various demands. Still, a particular provider may be more suitable for your specific needs and priorities than the other two. Here’s a quick overview of when a particular provider might be a good fit for your use case:

Customer stories

Here are some real-life examples of customers who resolved challenges and reached their goals by relying on one of the cloud providers we’re discussing:

Azure & Scandinavian Airlines

Scandinavian Airlines (SAS), Scandinavia’s leading airline, decided to streamline its application environment back in 2021. Recovering from the COVID-19 travel restrictions, the company’s main goal was to reduce costs and give the development team more agility.

SAS chose Azure and began migrating its infrastructure. But, they had trouble finding a replacement for PostgreSQL, a popular open-source database they used for their booking app. Considering the app’s importance, downtime wasn’t an option. 

After some trial and error, the company was able to overcome the challenge and find the perfect solution—the app now runs in Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) backed by Azure Database for PostgreSQL—Flexible Server. With Microsoft’s continuous support, SAS was able to:

1. Lower infrastructure costs

2. Make sure their booking app can easily handle traffic spikes

3. Free their app team from managing the infrastructure and let them focus on innovation

Google Cloud & Millenium bcp

Millenium bcp, Portugal’s largest private bank, realized they had a major issue they needed to resolve to stay competitive. Namely, the bank relied too much on physical branches for personal loan applications—clients had to visit banks in person during working hours and go through tedious application processes. This overreliance prevented the bank from:

1. Growing at the desired pace

2. Meeting the customers’ expectations in terms of enjoying seamless, immediate, and personalized solutions

After realizing this, the bank set a goal—to boost digital sales of personal loans while targeting only existing customers and optimizing reach and relevance. To achieve this, Millennium bcp turned to Google Cloud. It used Google Cloud’s advanced AI and machine learning capabilities and BigQuery (Google Cloud’s AI-backed data analytics platform) to:

1. Analyze behavioral patterns of clients who had obtained loans

2. Create predictive models that pinpoint clients who are likely to obtain a loan

3. Segment users into three interest levels—low, medium, and high

Using Google Cloud and some other Google products, such as Google Analytics and Firebase (mobile and web app development platform), the bank was able to achieve results that went beyond their expectations:

• For owned media campaigns, the bank saw a 2.6x increase in conversion rates for BigQuery-powered audiences.

• For paid media campaigns, conversion rates were 1.9x higher while cost-per-acquisition dropped by 36%.

AWS & Saks

Saks, a luxury department store chain, used to be famous for their brick-and-mortar stores. In 2021, the company set up a standalone ecommerce division to offer the same luxurious experience to customers who prefer online shopping.

Saks had one goal from the start—to provide top-notch customer service by focusing on expanding agents’ and supervisors’ knowledge and improving customer interactions. The company turned to AWS to achieve this goal and used multiple products, including:

1. Amazon Connect: This is AWS’ public cloud customer contact service center. With it, Saks’ contact center supervisors can access near real-time metrics to help agents with challenging calls. Amazon Connect also gives agents access to historical data, so they can monitor agents’ performance.

2. Amazon Transcribe: AWS’ speech recognition service that uses machine learning to convert speech to text. Saks leveraged it to turn customer calls into text.

3. Amazon Bedrock: AWS’ service that simplifies building and scaling generative AI apps. Saks used it to automate the summarization of customer interactions.

With this potent combo of AWS tools, Saks achieved the following results:

• Reduced after-call work by 15 seconds per interaction. Considering that Saks handles millions of calls, this is a significant achievement.

• 20-minute calls can now be distilled into a few sentences within seconds.

• Customer experience has been significantly improved, exceeding the expectations of often demanding luxury-fashion clientele.

Understand your architecture with Miro

While they differ in certain aspects, AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are all top-quality cloud providers. Whichever you end up choosing, you should know that building a cloud architecture is no walk in the park.

Without a clear picture of your architecture’s components and interactions, it’s easy to miss bottlenecks and improvement opportunities. Plus, if you and your team aren’t on the same page about your workload, there’s plenty of room for confusion and misunderstandings.

To nip these issues in the bud and start your project on the right foot, you should create a clear but detailed visual representation of your cloud architecture—and that’s what Miro can help you with.

How can Miro help you create cloud architecture diagrams?

Miro’s an Innovation Workspace with an infinite canvas and loads of features for creating diagrams to represent every element of your Azure, Google Cloud, or AWS architecture. Here are some of its architecture diagramming capabilities:

• Shape packs: Miro makes diagramming effortless with its vast library of standardized cloud architecture icons for AWS, Google Cloud, and Azure. You can drag and drop them across your Miro board until you design the architecture you want.

• Diagram focus mode: Miro helps you unleash your full diagramming potential with tools like a curated toolbar, layers, and the ability to adjust alignment and distribution with ease.

• 26+ cloud architecture diagramming templates: Skip the hassle of creating AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud diagrams from scratch by relying on some of Miro’s ready-made templates. We recommend the AWS Architecture Diagramming Template, the Azure Architecture Diagramming Template, and the Google Cloud Architecture Diagramming Template.

• Real-time and async collaboration options: Miro makes it easy to collaborate with your team on refining your cloud diagram. You can use workshops and interactive presentations to stay connected in real time or record a Talktrack directly from your Miro board if you prefer async collaboration.

As Miro has partnered up with AWS, it offers extra features you’ll benefit from if you choose this cloud provider, including:

• Cloud View App: Import data from your AWS account and automatically generate a diagram of your architecture.

• AWS Cost Calculator: Estimate AWS service price points, view estimations side by side, and plan your cloud spend to optimize costs.

Ready to gain detailed insight into your cloud architecture? Sign up for the free Business trial and explore Miro’s AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud capabilities. 

Want to see Miro in action? Check out the results that ClickHouse, a database management company, was able to achieve with it.