Azure is Microsoft’s public cloud service. It is available in 54 geographical regions, with approximately 162 availability zones. It offers a robust Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) portfolio as well as powerful Platform as a Service (PaaS) features, especially for Windows applications. Azure provides specialized services for big data and analytics, game and mobile app development, data warehousing, DevOps benefits like agile development pipelines, and more. Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Google’s public cloud service, is a newcomer to the cloud services industry. As of 2019, it is offered in 20 geographical regions. However, GCP makes up for its limited reach with the advantages of Google’s unparalleled scale. It leverages Google’s private fiber optic network which provides blazing fast connectivity between its data centers. Google Cloud also provides strong support for containers due to Google’s close connection with Kubernetes. Lastly, it was built with “customer-friendly pricing”, which aims to be simpler and more understandable, and also lower, than comparable cloud services. This is part of our series of articles about Google Cloud migration. In this article, you will learn: In Gartner’s 2020 Magic Quadrant for Cloud Infrastructure and Platform Services, Amazon Web Services is positioned as the leader, with Azure and Google Cloud behind it. The following table summarizes Gartner’s analysis of the relative market position of Google Cloud vs Azure, and their market share. Cloud Provider Gartner Analysis Market Share Microsoft Azure Provides comprehensive end to end solutions Leads in platform as a service (PaaS) Strong solutions for developers Natural choice for Microsoft technology stack, with extensive support for Linux World’s second largest cloud provider Microsoft cloud business (including Azure) generates over $50 billion per annum Microsoft was not negatively affected by COVID-19 crisis Azure grew 48% year over year in 2020 Google Cloud Leads in database as a service and infrastructure as a service Provides the most advanced hybrid and multi cloud platform, Google Anthos Strong support for containers and Kubernetes World’s third largest cloud provider Google Cloud Platform generates over $13 billion in annual revenue Google Cloud grew 45% year over year in 2020 Microsoft Azure pricing highlights 1-3 years commitment for reserved VM instances grants a significant discountWhat Is Azure?
What Is Google Cloud Platform?
Azure vs Google Cloud: Market Position
Source: GartnerGoogle Cloud vs Azure Pricing
If you run Microsoft software on-premises, you can get an Azure Hybrid Benefit discount of up to 40%
Substantial discounts for development and testing Azure instances for Visual Studio users
If you have a Microsoft Enterprise Agreement (EA) you can get additional discounts for cloud computing services
Azure offers a free tier with minimal services, many more popular services for 12 months, and $200 credit to try any other paid service
Google Cloud pricing highlights
If you use the same instance for most of a given month you are eligible for a sustained use discount of up to 30%
For jobs that can be stopped and restarted later (not requiring high availability), you can use Preemptible VM Instances with discounts of up to 80%
If you make a long-term commitment to use a VM (like Azure reserved VMs), you are eligible for discounts of up to 57%
GCP offers a free tier with some basic services that are always free and a $300 credit to try other services
Azure and Google pricing calculators
Because cloud pricing is extremely complex and dependent on the services used, types of instances or storage, bandwidth, consumed, and many other factors, it is best to use the calculators provided by each vendor, inputting your individual usage parameters:
- See Azure’s official price calculator or NetApp’s Azure Calculator, which provides more granular comparisons of Azure storage services
- See Google’s official price calculator
Azure vs Google Cloud: Storage Services
Here are the storage services provided by Azure vs GCP across the common cloud storage tiers.
Storage Service | Azure | Google Cloud | How they Compare |
Object Storage | Azure Blob Storage | Google Cloud Storage | ● Azure provides REST API, Powershell and CLI access ● Google optimizes price/performance using Object Lifecycle Management |
Persistent Disk Storage | Azure Managed Disks (HDD/SSD) | Persistent Disk (HDD/SSD) | ● Azure offers Ultra Disk SSD with up to 2GB/second, 1.6m IOPS ● Google offers the cheapest price/performance for HDD/SSD |
File Storage | Azure Files | Google Cloud Filestore | ● Azure provides access to files via standard SMB protocol ● Google offers NAS access and integrates with GKE |
Cold Storage | Azure Long-Term Storage | Nearline & Coldline | ● Azure offers hot, cool, and archive access tiers ● Google offers cold storage with sub-second response times |
Data Transfer | Azure Import/Export Service | Storage Transfer Service | ● Azure offers a data transfer command line tool and an option for shipping physical drives ● Google offers API and console access and lets you schedule data transfer tasks |
Summary: Azure provides a well-rounded set of storage services and features, but can have a steep learning curve, especially for users without a background in Microsoft technology. Google offers fewer features but shines in storage pricing and ease of its use.
Azure vs Google Cloud: Compute Services
Here are the primary services provided by Microsoft Azure vs Google Cloud Platform for running VMs and containerized workloads in the cloud.
Compute Service | Azure | Google Cloud | How they Compare |
Virtual Machine Instances | Azure Virtual Machines | Google Computer Engine | ● Azure offers more regions and availability zones ● Google provides lower prices across all instance types as well as Custom Machine Types |
Auto Scaling | Azure Autoscale | Managed Instance Groups | ● Azure lets you autoscale using a wide variety of metrics ● Google provides auto-healing and built-in load balancing |
Container as a Service | Azure Kubernetes Service | Google Kubernetes Engine | ● AKS supports Visual Studio and Azure DevOps ● GKE is considered the most robust Kubernetes service |
Function as a Service | Azure Functions | Google Cloud Functions | ● Azure offers an end-to-end experience from coding to deployment and monitoring ● Google’s service emphasizes simplicity |
Summary: Google Cloud cannot yet compete with Azure's massive data center infrastructure, but makes up for it with stronger support for container and Kubernetes use cases, and a smoother learning curve across all types of deployments.
Google Cloud competes with Microsoft Azure on price and provides more flexible pricing across almost all cloud services. However, Azure provides a discount model that can be attractive for existing Microsoft customers. You can use an Azure TCO to calculate the overall costs of Azure.
Azure vs Google Cloud: Networking
The following table summarizes the networking capabilities provided by Azure and Google Cloud.
Networking Service | Azure | Google Cloud | Features and Benefits |
CDN | Azure CDN | Google Cloud CDN | Both clouds offer:
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Dedicated Interconnect | ExpressRoute | Cloud Interconnect |
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DNS | Azure DNS | Cloud DNS |
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Load Balancing | Azure Load Balancer | Google Load Balancing | Both clouds offer:
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Cloud Management with Cloud Volumes ONTAP
NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, the leading enterprise-grade storage management solution, delivers secure, proven storage management services on AWS, Azure and Google Cloud. Cloud Volumes ONTAP supports up to a capacity of 368TB, and supports various use cases such as file services, databases, DevOps or any other enterprise workload.
In addition, NetApp Cloud Manager provides the UI and APIs for management, automation and orchestration, .
Yifat Perry
