Although AWS is now the industry leader in the cloud computing market, Google Cloud Platform(GCP) and Microsoft Azure are expanding faster to compete with AWS. With its strong concentration on the enterprise, Microsoft, in particular, is hot on AWS’s tail, and it is the second most used cloud platform.
Meanwhile, Google’s footprints continuously grow by offering robust integrations with good business support and open-source projects. Here, we will learn more about GCP and Azure.
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What is Google Cloud Platform?
GCP is a highly scalable, reliable, and secure cloud platform by Google that provides the different IaaS and PaaS services via the Internet. So, without worrying about infrastructure management, you can utilize these services to expand your IT infrastructure.
It enables consumers to store and compute data while also assisting developers in testing, building, and deploying apps. GCP provides services in various areas, including networking, storage, computation, big data, database, machine learning, IoT, etc. Over 4 million apps rely on the platform, demonstrating its relevance and dependability.
Advantages of GCP
Security
Google has developed a security approach that is both effective and safe. For example, consider Gmail, YouTube, and their search engine demands a degree of protection. In addition, the workforce includes many security specialists responsible for the cloud platform’s security.
Data stored in the GCP is highly secured. In addition, their ties with the world’s top ISPs assist in increasing security by avoiding exposure to the public Internet.
Better pricing
GCP hosting Plans are significantly less expensive than other Platforms Hosting Plans, giving Google an advantage over its competition.
Users only need to sign up with a credit card and other information. There is no subscription required to start using GCP; instances on GCP are just less expensive; Compute Engine alone is often 40% – 50% less expensive than Azure and AWS.
Data backup
GCP assures that your data is never lost in case of any disaster or man-made mistakes. It redundantly saves your data using four separate forms of storage. When you activate its multi-regional storage option, your data is saved in at least two different locations. So, if something goes wrong, there are always plenty of backups.
What is Microsoft Azure?
Microsoft Azure is the second leading cloud provider. Azure enables you to develop, deploy, and manage apps faster and simply on the cloud. In addition, you do not need to purchase and maintain the infrastructure as the cloud provider handles everything.
Azure fulfills all of your compliance and security standards while being easily configurable to fit the specific demands of your business. Azure also offers seamless integration with other Microsoft Products.
Azure complements your existing infrastructure nicely for those who already have a Microsoft infrastructure. In addition, Azure is the best choice for organizations trying to expand and remain ahead of the competition because it is flexible, highly-secure, fully-managed, cost-effective, and technologically advanced services.
Advantages of Microsoft Azure
Best for all level organizations
Azure is intended for businesses, from the neighborhood shoe shop to multinational organizations. It is easily adaptable to match your IT needs and has a pay-as-you-go pricing plan to accommodate any budget. You save a lot of money on IT expenditures such as multiple softwares, hardware, and their management by launching and storing applications on Azure.
Robust security
Microsoft has developed Azure to keep up with other cloud providers when talking about data protection. As a result, Azure is one of the best cloud providers in high-risk industries like finance, government, and health care.
Additional services, like data encryption, multifactor authentication(MFA), load balancer, and advanced disaster recovery capabilities that can restore data in hours, meet additional business demands.
Specific apps for particular needs
Because some businesses are high-risk and sensitive, Azure has created business-specific applications to satisfy particular demands. Azure’s various capabilities, such as more straightforward compliance, offline cloud services, tailored security needs, and updated client apps, greatly assist finance, health, government, and other high-risk industries.
Easily manage and extend your IT infrastructure.
Azure helps you focus on your business rather than worrying about infrastructure and other technical aspects such as security and scalability. The platform enables you to develop and deploy existing apps easily and quickly with little to no downtime.
In addition, a unified development environment and user-friendly dashboard shortens the learning curve and allows you to understand the platform soon.
Furthermore, Azure is present in most regions, allowing for speedier content delivery while maximizing the user experience. It is easy to scale your applications with Azure, and you only pay for what you use.
GCP vs Azure: Compute Power
| Compute service type | GCP | Azure | Comparison |
| Infrastructure as a Service | Google Compute Engine | Virtual Machines(VMs) | Azure has expanded its regions and availability zones. It has the highest number of regions. Google offers decreased rates on all instance kinds, including Custom Machine Types. |
| Platform as a service | Google App Engine | App Service | You can host apps without being worried about the infrastructure. App Service and App Engine allow you to host apps in no time. |
| Serverless computing | Cloud Functions | Azure Functions | Both Google and Azure functions are highly compatible with other native services. |
| Container service | Google Kubernetes Engine | Azure Kubernetes Service(AKS) | AKS is compatible with Azure DevOps and Visual Studio. As a result, GKE is often regarded as the most dependable Kubernetes service. |
GCP vs Azure: Database
| Type | GCP | Azure |
| NoSQL | Cloud Bigtable, Cloud Firestore, Firebase real-time database | Azure Table Storage, Azure CosmosDB |
| In-memory | Cloud Memorystore | Azure Cache for Redis |
| Relational database | Cloud SQL, MySQL, PostgreSQL | Azure MySQL, PostgreSQL, Azure SQL server family |
GCP vs Azure: Storage
| Storage type | GCP | Azure | Comparison |
| Object Storage | Google Cloud Storage | Azure Blob Storage | GCP optimizes performance and price with Object lifecycle management. |
| Persistent Disk Storage | Persistent Disk (HDD/SSD) | Azure Managed Disks (HDD/SSD) | GCP has the lowest pricing for HDD/SSD, whereas Azure has Ultra disk SSD with speeds of up to 2GB/second. |
| File Storage | Google Cloud Filestore | Azure Files | Google provides NAS access, while Azure uses the standard SMB protocol to access files. |
| Cold Storage | Nearline & Coldline | Azure Long-Term Storage | Google offers cold storage with less than a second reaction time. Azure has three access tiers: hot, cool, and archive. |
| Data Transfer | Storage Transfer Service | Azure Import/Export Service | Google provides API and console access and the ability to schedule data transfer operations. In addition, Azure delivers a physical hard drive shipping option and a data transfer command-line tool. |
GCP vs Azure: Availability regions
The first thing to consider when selecting a cloud provider is the supported regions and availability. Issues such as latency and compliance regulations, mostly while dealing with data, directly influence the performance of your cloud.
With more declared regions 60+ than any other cloud provider, Azure makes it simple to select the data center and regions that are best for you. GCP has 24 regions and 73 zones in all. Each region has three zones except US-Central1 having four.
GCP vs Azure: Ease of Use
If you are new to cloud computing, it would be effortless to get started with Azure compared to GCP. Azure has a user-friendly dashboard from which you can manage all of your services.
Whereas the UI of GCP is a bit complicated. You will need some extra time to understand the platform entirely. Both platforms have sharp documentation, but the community grown around Azure is bigger than GCP. However, you will find Azure guides and tutorials easily compared to GCP.
Wrapping up
It is tough to determine which of the two cloud service providers is the best – Azure or GCP. However, based on your requirement, the above analysis can help you make an educated conclusion.
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Amit Doshi is a Cloud Engineer who has experienced more than 5 years in AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud. He is an IT professional responsible for designing, implementing, managing, and maintaining cloud computing infrastructure, applications, and services.