AWS vs Google Cloud Platform is a continuing saga as these two competitors race for bigger market shares. Here are some of the things that have been happening in the last 12 months.
Everything seems to be on the cloud nowadays. For the clueless, this might bring up images of fluffy bits of vapor with very little substance.
However, a cloud platform exists in concrete buildings filled with data servers. In the AWS vs Google Cloud debate, the physical infrastructure is very much a factor in deciding on one or the other.
An earlier article makes a comprehensive comparison of AWS and the Google Cloud Platform. Therefore, there is no need to go over old ground. However, there have been some significant changes since then.
These updates on cloud computing platforms AWS vs Google Cloud might help you decide which is best for your needs.
AWS vs Google Cloud in earnings
First-quarter 2021 statistics for the cloud computing global market shows it at quarterly earnings of US$41.8 billion. The growth is about 35% over the previous year. This is attributable to the accelerated adoption of online business platforms to do just about everything.
There is also a surge in confidence for making long-term plans as economic recovery and vaccinations roll out.
As expected, the top cloud services providers continue to benefit the most from these developments. Amazon Web Service or AWS holds on to its number one spot for the first quarter of 2021. Estimates put AWS at a 32% market share. It reports a net sales increase of 44% ($108.5 billion) over Q1 2020 ($75.5 billion).
Third seed Google Cloud Platform or GCP actually did relatively better than AWS. It reports considerable growth for Q1 2021 at 61.6% (US$4.047 billion). This is over Q1 2020 revenues of US$2.777 billion. However, estimates still put the GCP market share at 7% in Q1 2021.
Now, to address the elephant in the room: why is Azure not in the running? It has a 19% market share, so it beats out GCP by a mile.
The answer is simple: multicloud. In other words, a majority of enterprises are now using two or more cloud services providers. Microsoft Azure is likely to be one of them because it plays well with both AWS and GCP. It is the proverbial middle child.
In fact, in one survey of multicloud advocates, 79% of respondents chose Azure as their favorite. AWS and GCP came in at just 56% and 35%, respectively. With Azure Arc built for a multicloud environment, it is now a given it will be in the mix.
So, what is happening lately with AWS and GCP?
AWS updates
- AWS reports 80 Availability Zones (each one containing one or more data centers) in 25 regions serving 245 countries and territories.
- It has two locations in Japan, one in South Korea, and ten in the US with Wavelength Zones for 5G networks. Designed for low latency and data offloading to the network edge, the presence of these zones can help users conserve power and bandwidth. This is particularly crucial for game streaming, virtual reality, and smart technologies.
- The CloudWatch Synthetics round-the-clock monitoring feature for URLs, REST APIs, and website content is currently available in the Asia Pacific Region (Osaka).
- Redshift ML allows users to create and train machine-learning models using SQL commands and is currently available to all users of Amazon Sagemaker.
- Locations of AWS CloudFront edge now include Indonesia and Croatia. This will amp up first-byte latency by 30% for these locations.
- Bidirectional integration is now possible between AWS Security Hub and Atlassian Jira Service Management (JSM) that will automate creating and updating security issues in JSM from Security Hub results.
- An organization aggregator is now available in the AWS Control Tower. Users can now view applied detective guardrails to see if more are need and track compliance more easily. This is good news for multi-account cloud users dealing with different teams.
- The Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) is now easier to manage using a new console. Create, view, edit, and delete ECS services, tasks, and clusters much more easily than with the current console.
- The AWS IoT SiteWise Monitor now allows users to manage resources using CloudFormation.
- Users can now automate the management of data in the AWS Data Exchange using Publisher Coordinator and Subscriber Coordinator.
GCP updates
- Google Cloud reports it has 76 zones in 25 regions serving 200+ countries.
- It now includes Israel on its list of cloud regions.
- It launched four new cloud regions in 2020: Jakarta, Seoul, Las Vegas, and Salt Lake City.
- Datashare is now available for all users for the secure and easy exchange of market data.
- It launched a series of data management features and services. This includes Dataplex, an integrated analytics solution for curating and managing data at scale and making it accessible to analytics tools in a secure way. It also launched the serverless data capture and replication Datastream service as well as Analytics Hub.
- Users can now access the unified AI platform, Vertex AI, to create and deploy AI models faster and with fewer lines of code.
- Entry costs for the relational database Cloud Spanner services are now up to 90% less.
- Google Cloud introduced Big Query Omni in mid-2020. It is a serverless multicloud data analytics service running on the Anthos platform. It extends the analytics capabilities of GCP users to other publicly available cloud services from BigQuery.
AWS vs. Google Cloud pain points
Google Cloud is lagging behind AWS in terms of reach, although it is racing to close the gap. It also has fewer product and service offerings, although that is understandable as it launched two years after AWS.
On the other hand, AWS continues to have PR problems with its pricing model. Many people have a hard time understanding and managing it.
Additionally, AWS has gained the reputation of being on the high end of the cost spectrum. This could be because it was the first in the market so demand was high. However, with stiff competition getting stiffer, it has had to lower its prices multiple times. It is still more expensive than Google Cloud overall, though.
You should also note that there are some issues with data access in AWS. Once in storage control of AWS, it is a lot harder to find the data and move them to another storage platform than it is to put it in.
Summary
The AWS vs Google Cloud updates may convince you to go with one service, or it may not. This is not an extensive list. The purpose is not to convince, but to inform, and hopefully was helpful in making a smart decision about your cloud computing service.
Choosing your cloud platform is just one part of the process. The next thing you need is to manage it, and Full Scale can help. We have experienced AWS and Google Cloud experts to do that for you.
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