Cloud Wars: Which Cloud Provider Wins?

Photo by Billy Huynh on Unsplash

In the not-so-distant past, releasing software capable of communication with the outside world required lots of work. Engineers would have to manage and maintain all of their own computing needs, like network infrastructure, application servers and databases. This would often be done ‘on-prem’, i.e. in a physical location which they own, resulting in large server rooms. This is why so many older programmers are bald. And grumpy.

Everybody's gotten a bit smarter since then. Businesses like Amazon, Microsoft and Google realised that they could not only make your life easier, but also rob you blind while doing it. Thus: cloud computing services. Now, any engineer who wants to deploy an application can simply ask a cloud provider to do it for them. You write the code and they handle the hosting. No more manual network configuration, no more tinkering with physical servers. Just open your whole entire wallet and Jeff Bezos will appear with a warm blanket and 3 availability zones.

But, like anything else, everybody’s in on it. And by everybody, I mean Amazon, Microsoft and Google. And they all want your money (and soul). So who should you give it to?

AWS

Most who think ‘cloud computing’ probably think Amazon Web Services. Like with basically everything else, Bezos has his tiny bejeweled fingers firmly stuck in this particular pie. And, to be fair, most who work with AWS have great success, which is probably because they’ve been playing this game since 2006. They were first on the scene and if the current trend is anything to go by, will probably be the last too. At the time of writing, AWS has around 30% market share. This may not seem like a lot but it is a good deal ahead of their next competitor, Microsoft.

There are quite a few benefits to investing in AWS. For one, due to its popularity, there is a wealth of information available online to build up your skills. AWS also provides certification exams and with a little effort you can find 2 billion Udemy courses promising to help you pass these. Official certifications are great for job prospects because so many businesses rely on AWS and need engineers who can prove they know how to walk the walk. This is because AWS is a living nightmare, like all cloud providers, and can only be troubleshooted by a certified genius. Unfortunately, we have no other choice, so you may as well become one.

In terms of what AWS offers, there are nearly 200 services. This is far too much to cover here, but some of the popular ones are: EC2, for creating configurable application servers; AWS lambda, for deploying serverless functions; and AWS DynamoDB, a data storage service.

Azure

Azure is Microsoft’s contender in the cloud computing games, and is the nearest threat to AWS. It was formally released in 2010, which makes it the youngest provider, and enjoys around 20% market share.

With AWS dominating the scene, you might wonder why anyone would bother with Azure at all. And there are definitely some things to consider. For example, there is often a direct correlation between popularity and the availability of learning resources, so it’s fair to assume that Azure courses will be harder to find. And with the lower market share, jobs are likely more scarce too, although definitely far from non-existent. However, it’s also important to remember that Microsoft is a very mature company, and have been doing software since their inception, 20 years before Amazon. Not only that, but there are hundreds of other services on offer. Integrations with popular tools like Microsoft Dynamics will surely be made easier when working with Azure because Microsoft owns the real estate and will be able to jump certain hurdles that may exist with integrations between two separate entities. Plus, building a relationship with a company like Microsoft means you may be able to strike deals on access to their other services. So while it seems like AWS has run away with the market, it would be naive to think that means they’re best for you, specifically.

Azure offers less than AWS, but still has an extensive number of services, like server hosting, identity and access management, and databases.

GCP

Released in 2008, Google Cloud Platform is older than Azure, but the least popular service with only 7% market share. It’s not entirely clear why this is, although it may be down to Google focusing a lot more on its other ventures over the years.

Despite its lack of use, GCP shouldn’t be discounted as a viable cloud provider. Google developed Kubernetes, a very successful container management service, so they do know their stuff when it comes to infrastructure. And like Microsoft, Google has proven time and time again that it’s capable of great feats of engineering. Google is also data king, given it’s monopoly over web search, and so it has a lot to work with when it comes to developing data-driven tools like analytics and AI software. So if you’re developing applications in this area, GCP could be a great candidate. Additionally, for more lightweight users, there’s also the added benefit of Firebase integration, which is arguably a much more straightforward way of deploying a website with data storage needs than configuring EC2 and DynamoDB on AWS. Google also offers longer users a ‘sustained use discount’, which means your services get cheaper as time goes on. However, 7% market share doesn’t bode well on the job front, so that may be worth considering before investing in GCP.

GCP provides similar core services to AWS and Azure, like application servers, database hosting and network configuration. It also has great tools for data analytics and AI.

---

So all three companies are vying for your business, and all three have something to offer, and you may be tempted now to just select one and go with it. But in truth there is nothing stopping users from picking and choosing the different services they want from each. You may make use of Google’s AI and analytics services, Azure’s compute services and Amazon lambda. This kind of multi-cloud strategy might actually work out to be cheaper and more beneficial to your business overall, provided you can architect it well. Of course, it does come with some drawbacks. You’ll need to invest time and effort into learning how to use the various parts of each that you want, and also how to integrate them successfully. Additionally, if you run into problems, it will be harder to get support for issues existing with your cross-provider integrations. But it is possible.

So while AWS is attractive, don’t discount the others. The more effort you put into defining your own use case, the better your application will be. This should also mean fewer monopolies over tech, which is something everyone should support.