Azure vs AWS vs GCP Service Comparison

Last updated on October 23, 2023

In the dynamic landscape of cloud computing, Microsoft’s Azure stands as a pivotal player, offering myriad services that cater to businesses of all sizes and sectors. Azure’s commitment to flexibility, scalability, and reliability is evident in its expansive toolset, allowing for seamless application development, management, and deployment across its vast global network of data centers. What’s particularly intriguing is that one can find a corresponding or equivalent service within AWS and GCP for each of Azure’s services. This illustrates the interconnected nature of the cloud ecosystem and the ever-present spirit of competition and innovation that drives it forward.

The table below provides a side-by-side comparison of key Azure services and features and their corresponding or equivalent offerings in AWS and GCP.

Category	Azure	Description	AWS	GCP
Compute	Azure Virtual machines	Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS) for deploying individual virtualized computers or servers.	EC2	Compute Engine
Compute	Virtual machine scale Sets	Allows the creation and management of a group of load-balanced VMs for scalable and high-availability applications.	AWS Auto Scaling	Compute Engine Autoscaler
Compute	App Service	Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) for building, deploying, and scaling web applications and APIs.	Elastic Beanstalk	App Engine
DevOps	DevOps	Set of developer collaboration tools for continuous integration and delivery (CI/CD).	AWS CodeCommit, AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodeDeploy	Google Cloud Deploy
Serverless	Functions	Serverless compute service to run event-driven code without provisioning or managing infrastructure.	AWS Lambda	Cloud Functions
Serverless	Event Grid	Event routing service that reacts in real-time to changes in Azure resources or custom events.	AWS EventBridge	Eventarc
Tools	Azure CLI	Command-line interface tool for managing Azure resources.	AWS CLI	Cloud SDK
Tools	Azure SDKs	Set of development kits for different programming languages to interact with Azure resources.	AWS SDKs	Cloud SDK
Database	Azure Cosmos DB	Globally distributed, multi-model database service for large-scale applications.	Amazon DynamoDB	Firestore
Database	Azure SQL Family	Group of SQL-based managed relational database services, including SQL Database, SQL Managed Instance, and SQL Data Warehouse.	RDS	Cloud SQL
Containers	Azure Kubernetes Service	Managed Kubernetes service for orchestrating Docker containers.	Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service	Google Kubernetes Engine
Container	Azure Container Registry	Managed Docker container registry to store and manage private container images.	Amazon Elastic Container Registry	Artifact Registry
Migration	Azure Migrate	Service to assist businesses in moving their on-premises workloads to Azure.	AWS Server Migration Service	Migrate to Virtual Machines
Migration	Azure Data Box	Physical appliance to securely transfer large amounts of data to Azure.	AWS Snowball	Transfer Appliance
Storage	Blob storage	Object storage service for unstructured data, suitable for serving images, documents or backups.	S3	Cloud Storage
Storage	Storage archive access tier	Storage tier offering low-cost archival storage for rarely accessed data.	S3 Glacier	Cloud Storage Archive
Storage	Disk Storage	Durable and highly available block-level storage volumes for Azure VMs.	EBS	Persistent Disk
Storage	Azure Files	Managed file shares that use the standard Server Message Block (SMB) protocol.	EFS	Filestore
Networking	Virtual Network	Provides isolated, private environments in Azure, where users can launch Azure resources.	VPC	VPC
Networking	VPN Gateway	Connects on-premises data centers to Azure through VPN tunnels.	VPN Gateway	Cloud Router
Networking	DNS	Domain hosting service that resolves domain names to IP addresses.	Amazon Route 53	Cloud DNS
Networking	ExpressRoute	Private dedicated connection from on-premises to Azure without going through the public internet.	Direct Connect	Hybrid Connectivity
Networking	Application Gateway	Load balancer service for web traffic, which includes URL routing, cookie-based session affinity, and SSL termination.	Application Load Balancer	Global load balancing
Networking	Front Door	A scalable and secure entry point for fast content delivery and application acceleration with global load-balancing capability.	CloudFront	Cloud CDN
Management	Activity Log	Provides insight into operations that were performed on resources in an Azure account.	CloudTrail	Cloud Audit Logs
Management	Application Insights	Application performance management service for developers to monitor live applications, detect anomalies, and diagnose issues.	CloudWatch	Cloud Monitoring
Management	Cost Management	Service providing tools to monitor, allocate, and optimize cloud costs.	Cost Explorer	Recommender
Management	Portal	Web-based platform for accessing and managing all Azure resources.	Management Console	Cloud Console
Management	Advisor	Personalized cloud consultant that helps users follow best practices to optimize Azure deployments.	Trusted Advisor
Identity	Azure Active Directory	Identity and access management service, ensuring that only authorized users can access resources.	Identity and Access Management (IAM)	Cloud Identity
Identity	Azure role-based access control	Authorization system based on Azure’s resource hierarchy, giving fine-grained access control to resources.	Identity and Access Management (IAM)	Identity and Access Management
Security	Key Vault	Service to securely manage cryptographic keys, secrets, and certificates used by cloud applications and services.	Key Management Service	Cloud KMS
Security	Microsoft Defender for Cloud	Comprehensive security management system that strengthens the security posture of data and services in Azure.	Inspector	Security Command Center

Written by: Matt Hidalgo

Matt is a Solutions Architect for a managed services provider that specializes in AWS and Azure. After graduating from college with a degree in Geology, he decided to switch careers and self-taught himself with AWS and Azure. Matt specializes in the migration and deployment of workloads to AWS and Azure with 3 years of experience.