Showing 43 services
| Concept | AWS | Microsoft Azure | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Compute | |||
| Virtual Machines | AWS EC2Resizable virtual servers; broad instance type selection | Azure Virtual MachinesIaaS VMs with deep Windows/AD integration | GCP Compute EngineHigh-performance VMs with per-second billing |
| Managed Kubernetes | AWS EKSManaged Kubernetes with deep AWS service integration | Azure AKSManaged Kubernetes; free control plane | GCP GKEGoogle's original Kubernetes service; Autopilot mode available |
| Serverless Containers | AWS FargateRun containers without managing servers | Azure Container InstancesFastest way to run a container in Azure | GCP Cloud RunFully managed serverless containers; scale to zero |
| Auto Scaling | AWS Auto ScalingScale EC2, ECS, DynamoDB, and more | Azure VMSSVirtual Machine Scale Sets for elastic fleets | GCP Managed Instance GroupsAuto-scaling groups of identical VMs |
| Batch Processing | AWS BatchFully managed batch computing workloads | Azure BatchHPC-grade batch job scheduling | GCP BatchManaged batch jobs on Google infrastructure |
| Container Registry | AWS ECRPrivate Docker registry integrated with ECS/EKS | Azure Container RegistryOCI-compatible registry with geo-replication | GCP Artifact RegistryStores Docker images and other build artifacts |
| Dedicated Hosts | AWS Dedicated HostsPhysical servers for compliance and licensing | Azure Dedicated HostSingle-tenant hardware isolation | GCP Sole-Tenant NodesDedicated physical servers for your workloads |
| Spot/Preemptible VMs | AWS Spot InstancesUp to 90% discount; can be interrupted | Azure Spot VMsLow-cost VMs that can be evicted | GCP Spot VMsShort-lived VMs at steep discount |
| Storage | |||
| Object Storage | AWS S3Industry-standard object store; 11 9s durability | Azure Blob StorageTiered object storage with lifecycle management | GCP Cloud StorageUnified object store with strong consistency |
| Block Storage | AWS EBSPersistent block volumes for EC2 instances | Azure Managed DisksPersistent disks with snapshot and replication | GCP Persistent DiskReliable block storage for Compute Engine |
| File Storage | AWS EFSManaged NFS; auto-scaling elastic file system | Azure FilesFully managed SMB/NFS file shares | GCP FilestoreHigh-performance managed NFS file storage |
| Archive Storage | AWS S3 GlacierLow-cost archive storage; retrieval in minutes-hours | Azure Archive StorageLowest-cost blob tier for rarely accessed data | GCP Archive StorageColdline tier; lowest cost for long-term retention |
| Data Transfer | AWS DataSyncAutomated online data movement to/from AWS | Azure Data BoxPhysical/online data migration service | GCP Transfer ServiceOnline data transfer from other clouds or on-prem |
| CDN | AWS CloudFrontGlobal CDN with 600+ PoPs; Lambda@Edge support | Azure CDNCDN with Akamai/Verizon/Microsoft backends | GCP Cloud CDNCDN backed by Google's global network |
| Database | |||
| Managed Relational | AWS RDSManaged MySQL, Postgres, SQL Server, Oracle, MariaDB | Azure SQL DatabasePaaS SQL Server with hyperscale option | GCP Cloud SQLManaged MySQL, Postgres, SQL Server |
| Global Distributed SQL | AWS AuroraMySQL/Postgres-compatible; up to 5x faster | Azure Cosmos DB (API)Multi-model DB with SQL, Mongo, Cassandra APIs | GCP SpannerHorizontally scalable, globally consistent SQL |
| NoSQL Document | AWS DynamoDBSingle-digit ms latency at any scale | Azure Cosmos DBMulti-model NoSQL with 99.999% SLA | GCP FirestoreServerless document DB for mobile/web apps |
| In-Memory Cache | AWS ElastiCacheManaged Redis and Memcached | Azure Cache for RedisManaged Redis with geo-replication | GCP MemorystoreManaged Redis and Memcached |
| Data Warehouse | AWS RedshiftColumn-store data warehouse; Redshift Spectrum | Azure Synapse AnalyticsUnified analytics with SQL pool and Spark | GCP BigQueryServerless data warehouse; pay-per-query |
| Time-Series | AWS TimestreamPurpose-built time-series database | Azure Time Series InsightsIoT analytics with time-series storage | GCP BigtableWide-column store for IoT and time-series |
| Search | AWS OpenSearchManaged OpenSearch / Elasticsearch | Azure AI SearchFull-text search with vector search and AI enrichment | GCP Vertex AI SearchEnterprise search with generative AI |
| Networking | |||
| Virtual Network | AWS VPCIsolated cloud network with full routing control | Azure VNetIsolated private network in Azure | GCP VPCGlobal VPC spans all regions by default |
| Load Balancer | AWS ELBALB (L7), NLB (L4), and Gateway LB | Azure Load BalancerL4 load balancer; plus Application Gateway L7 | GCP Cloud Load BalancingGlobal L4/L7 load balancing; single anycast IP |
| DNS | AWS Route 53Scalable DNS with routing policies and health checks | Azure DNSHost DNS zones in Azure infrastructure | GCP Cloud DNS100% uptime SLA DNS service |
| VPN | AWS VPNSite-to-site and client VPN to VPC | Azure VPN GatewayVPN to Azure VNet; up to 10 Gbps | GCP Cloud VPNIPsec tunnel to GCP VPC |
| Private Connectivity | AWS Direct ConnectDedicated fiber link to AWS | Azure ExpressRoutePrivate circuit to Azure datacenters | GCP Cloud InterconnectDedicated/partner interconnect to GCP |
| Firewall | AWS WAF + Security GroupsWAF for L7; security groups for L4 | Azure FirewallManaged cloud-native network firewall | GCP Cloud ArmorDDoS protection and WAF |
| IAM | |||
| Identity & Access | AWS IAMUsers, roles, policies for all AWS services | Azure Entra ID (AAD)Cloud identity, MFA, conditional access | GCP Cloud IAMResource-level permissions with roles and policies |
| Secrets Management | AWS Secrets ManagerRotate, manage, and retrieve secrets | Azure Key VaultManage keys, secrets, and certificates | GCP Secret ManagerStore and access secrets at scale |
| SSO | AWS IAM Identity CenterSSO for AWS accounts and apps | Azure Entra SSOSAML/OIDC SSO to thousands of apps | GCP Identity PlatformCustomer-facing identity with SSO |
| Multi-Factor Auth | AWS MFATOTP, hardware, and passkey MFA for IAM | Azure MFABuilt into Entra ID; Authenticator app | GCP 2-Step VerificationEnforced MFA for Google accounts and workspaces |
| Privileged Access | AWS IAM roles + SCPRole assumption and service control policies | Azure PIMJust-in-time privileged access management | GCP Workload IdentityKeyless auth for workloads; no service account keys |
| Serverless | |||
| Functions | AWS LambdaEvent-driven functions; 15-min max duration | Azure FunctionsServerless functions with Durable Functions extension | GCP Cloud FunctionsLightweight event-driven functions |
| API Gateway | AWS API GatewayREST, HTTP, WebSocket APIs at scale | Azure API ManagementFull API lifecycle management | GCP API GatewayLightweight managed API front-end |
| Event Bus | AWS EventBridgeServerless event bus with 200+ integrations | Azure Event GridEvent routing with 20M events/sec throughput | GCP EventarcRoute events from Google services to Cloud Run |
| Message Queue | AWS SQSManaged message queue; standard and FIFO | Azure Service BusEnterprise message broker with queues and topics | GCP Pub/SubGlobal real-time messaging and event ingestion |
| Workflow Orchestration | AWS Step FunctionsVisual workflow for distributed applications | Azure Logic AppsLow-code workflow automation | GCP WorkflowsServerless orchestration for Google Cloud services |
| ML/AI | |||
| ML Platform | AWS SageMakerEnd-to-end ML platform from data to deployment | Azure Machine LearningEnterprise ML with AutoML and MLOps | GCP Vertex AIUnified ML platform with AutoML and custom training |
| Vision AI | AWS RekognitionImage and video analysis; face recognition | Azure Computer VisionOCR, object detection, spatial analysis | GCP Vision AIImage classification, OCR, object detection |
| Natural Language | AWS ComprehendNLP: entities, sentiment, key phrases | Azure Language ServiceNLP with custom text classification and NER | GCP Natural Language APIEntity analysis, sentiment, syntax |
| Speech | AWS Polly + TranscribeText-to-speech (Polly) + speech-to-text (Transcribe) | Azure Speech ServiceSpeech-to-text, text-to-speech, translation | GCP Speech-to-Text + Text-to-SpeechBidirectional speech APIs |
| Generative AI | AWS BedrockFoundation models API: Claude, Titan, Llama | Azure OpenAI ServiceGPT-4, DALL-E, Whisper via Azure | GCP Vertex AI GenerativeGemini models and tuning on Google Cloud |
| Chatbot Builder | AWS LexBuild conversational interfaces (Alexa tech) | Azure Bot ServiceIntegrated chatbot framework with LUIS | GCP DialogflowNLU-powered chatbot builder |
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About the Cloud Service Comparison
The Certsqill Cloud Service Comparison maps equivalent services across the three major clouds — AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud — so you can see at a glance that, say, Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage and Google Cloud Storage all solve the same problem. Pick a concept and compare the matching services side by side across compute, storage, databases, networking, serverless and ML/AI. It is especially useful when you already know one cloud and are studying a second.
How to use the Cloud Service Comparison
- Pick a concept. Choose a cloud concept or category — compute, storage, database, networking, serverless or ML/AI.
- See the equivalents. View the matching AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud services side by side.
- Learn the mapping. Use the mappings to translate knowledge from one cloud to another — invaluable when studying a second provider.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Azure equivalent of AWS S3?
Azure Blob Storage is the closest equivalent to Amazon S3 for object storage. On Google Cloud, the equivalent is Cloud Storage.
What is the equivalent of AWS EC2 on Azure and GCP?
Azure Virtual Machines and Google Compute Engine are the equivalents of Amazon EC2 for running virtual servers (infrastructure as a service).
What are the managed Kubernetes services on each cloud?
AWS offers EKS (Elastic Kubernetes Service), Azure offers AKS (Azure Kubernetes Service), and Google Cloud offers GKE (Google Kubernetes Engine).
What are the serverless functions services on each cloud?
AWS Lambda, Azure Functions and Google Cloud Functions are the serverless (functions-as-a-service) equivalents across the three providers.
Which cloud certification should I take first?
A fundamentals certification is a good starting point: AWS Certified Cloud Practitioner (CLF-C02), Microsoft Azure Fundamentals (AZ-900), or Google Cloud Digital Leader. From there you can move to associate and professional levels.
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