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Intermediate · Google Cloud and comparing the clouds · topic 29 of 50 · 25 min

AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: the service map

Explanation

The three big clouds offer the same building blocks under different names: EC2, Azure Virtual Machines and Compute Engine are all VMs; S3, Blob Storage and Cloud Storage are all object storage. A service map lets you carry your skills from one cloud to another. Choose a cloud by team skills, existing licences, data and AI needs, credits, regions, price and compliance, and be honest that multi-cloud adds complexity.

Same ideas, different names

AWS, Microsoft Azure and Google Cloud grew up separately, so they gave their services different names. Underneath, the ideas are the same: virtual machines, object storage, managed databases, networks, identity and monitoring. Once you understand a concept on one cloud, learning it on another is mostly learning new names and a few different defaults.

Think of it like this: It is like UPI apps. PhonePe, Google Pay and Paytm look different and use different words, but all of them send money through the same UPI system. If you can use one, you can learn another in ten minutes.

The service map

NeedAWSAzureGoogle Cloud
Virtual machinesEC2Virtual MachinesCompute Engine
Autoscaling VMsEC2 Auto Scaling groupsVirtual Machine Scale SetsManaged instance groups
Serverless functionsLambdaAzure FunctionsCloud Run functions
Serverless containersECS on FargateAzure Container AppsCloud Run
Managed KubernetesEKSAKSGKE
Container registryECRAzure Container RegistryArtifact Registry
Object storageS3Blob StorageCloud Storage
Block storage (disks)EBSManaged DisksPersistent Disk and Hyperdisk
File storageEFSAzure FilesFilestore
Relational databaseRDS and AuroraAzure SQL Database, Azure Database for PostgreSQL and MySQLCloud SQL, AlloyDB, Spanner
NoSQL databaseDynamoDBCosmos DBFirestore, Bigtable
Data warehouseRedshiftSynapse Analytics, Microsoft FabricBigQuery
CDNCloudFrontAzure Front DoorCloud CDN
DNSRoute 53Azure DNSCloud DNS
Load balancerElastic Load Balancing (ALB, NLB)Load Balancer, Application GatewayCloud Load Balancing
Private networkVPC (regional)Virtual Network, VNet (regional)VPC (global)
Identity and accessIAM, IAM Identity CenterMicrosoft Entra ID, Azure RBACCloud IAM, Cloud Identity
Key managementKMSKey VaultCloud KMS
SecretsSecrets ManagerKey VaultSecret Manager
Monitoring (metrics, alerts)CloudWatchAzure MonitorCloud Monitoring
LogsCloudWatch LogsAzure Monitor Logs (Log Analytics)Cloud Logging
Native infrastructure as codeCloudFormation, CDKARM templates, BicepInfrastructure Manager (runs Terraform)
Message queueSQSQueue Storage, Service Bus queuesPub/Sub, Cloud Tasks
Publish and subscribeSNS, EventBridgeService Bus topics, Event GridPub/Sub, Eventarc

Read the table as "close equivalents", not "identical twins". For example, a Google Cloud VPC is global while AWS and Azure networks are regional. Azure Key Vault holds both keys and secrets, where AWS splits them into KMS and Secrets Manager. Terraform works on all three clouds and is the most common cross-cloud infrastructure as code tool.

Tip: Each cloud publishes its own comparison page (for example Microsoft's "AWS to Azure services comparison"). When you meet a new service, look it up there first.

How to choose a cloud

For most companies the choice is less about features, which are similar, and more about people, money and rules. Work through these factors in order.

  1. Team skills: a team that already knows AWS will ship faster on AWS. Retraining takes months.
  2. Existing Microsoft investment: companies on Microsoft 365, Entra ID, Windows Server and SQL Server licences often get discounts and smoother integration on Azure (for example through Azure Hybrid Benefit).
  3. Data and AI needs: strong analytics teams often like BigQuery; teams using a specific AI model or platform go where it runs best.
  4. Credits: startup programmes from all three clouds give credits. They help in year one, but do not choose a cloud only for credits.
  5. Region availability: check that the services you need exist in the regions you need. AWS (ap-south-1 Mumbai, ap-south-2 Hyderabad), Azure (Central India, South India, West India) and Google Cloud (asia-south1 Mumbai, asia-south2 Delhi) all have Indian regions, but not every service is in every region.
  6. Pricing: compare a realistic monthly estimate with each provider's calculator, including data transfer out, which is easy to forget.
  7. Compliance: regulated sectors such as banking, insurance and health must meet rules from bodies like the RBI and IRDAI about where data lives. Check certifications and data-residency options.

Multi-cloud, honestly

Multi-cloud means using more than one cloud provider. It happens for good reasons: a company acquires another that runs on a different cloud, or a team picks BigQuery for analytics while the main app runs on AWS. It is also sometimes sold as a way to avoid lock-in or survive a whole-provider outage.

Be honest about the cost. Every extra cloud means another identity system, another billing model, another network to secure, another set of skills to hire for, and data transfer charges between clouds. Running the same app actively on two clouds is hard and expensive. For most small and medium teams, one primary cloud done well, with portable tools such as containers and Terraform, is the sensible choice.

Careful: Common mistakes: assuming two "equivalent" services behave the same (check limits, defaults and pricing units); choosing a cloud because one engineer likes it rather than by the factors above; promising multi-cloud for resilience without budgeting the people and data transfer costs; and forgetting that a service available in a US region may not yet be in Mumbai or Delhi.

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AWS vs Azure vs Google Cloud: the service map · 1/7

Same ideas Different names

AWS, Azure and Google Cloud offer the same building blocks under different names.

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In real life: An NBFC in Chennai picks its cloud

A non-banking finance company in Chennai is moving its loan app to the cloud. The IT team uses Microsoft 365 and Entra ID, owns Windows Server and SQL Server licences, and must keep customer data in India under RBI rules. They compare monthly estimates for Azure (Central India) and AWS (Mumbai). Azure wins because existing licences lower the cost and single sign-on already works. Later, the analytics team wants BigQuery. Instead of a second cloud for everything, they export a daily anonymised dataset to BigQuery in asia-south1 and accept one small, well-defined multi-cloud link.

Practice (0/3 done)

Task 1 · Code · Javascript

The SERVICES table maps equivalent services between clouds (keys "aws", "azure" and "gcp"). Write equivalent(service, fromCloud, toCloud) that finds the row where the fromCloud name matches service and returns the toCloud name. Ignore upper and lower case in the cloud keys and in the service name, and ignore spaces around the service name. Return null when there is no match.

Task 2 · Question

A team moving from AWS to Azure asks where their secrets from AWS Secrets Manager and their keys from AWS KMS should go. What is the best answer?

Task 3 · Practice

A 12-person edtech startup in Jaipur builds a video course platform. The developers know some AWS, the founders use Google Workspace, they have startup credits offered by two clouds, and most users are in India. Write a one-page recommendation: which cloud, which 6 to 8 core services, and why. Include one risk and how you will handle it.

Quick quiz

Question 1

1.What is the Azure equivalent of Amazon S3?

Question 2

2.What is the closest Google Cloud equivalent of AWS Lambda?

Question 3

3.Which fact is the strongest reason for a company to choose Azure?

Question 4

4.Which statement about multi-cloud is most honest?

Question 5

5.Which service is Azure's identity platform, used for sign-in and single sign-on?

Read more (free)

Open a question to see the answer and why. The first ones are this topic's own quiz, so try the quiz above before you peek.

What is the Azure equivalent of Amazon S3?

Answer: Blob Storage

Blob Storage is Azure's object storage, like S3 and Google Cloud Storage.

What is the closest Google Cloud equivalent of AWS Lambda?

Answer: Cloud Run functions

Cloud Run functions (formerly Cloud Functions) run single functions on events, like Lambda.

Which fact is the strongest reason for a company to choose Azure?

Answer: The company already relies on Microsoft 365, Entra ID and owns Windows Server and SQL Server licences

Existing Microsoft investment brings integration and licence savings. The other options are not true.

Which statement about multi-cloud is most honest?

Answer: It adds identity, networking, billing and skills overhead, so it needs a clear reason

Multi-cloud can be justified, but every extra cloud adds work and data transfer cost.

Which service is Azure's identity platform, used for sign-in and single sign-on?

Answer: Microsoft Entra ID

Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure Active Directory) is Azure's identity service.

How is a VPC network scoped in Google Cloud?Related

Answer: Global, with regional subnets

Google Cloud VPC networks are global resources; each subnet lives in one region.

From Core Google Cloud services

What protects VMs against a whole datacentre in a region going down?Related

Answer: Spreading them across availability zones

Zones are physically separate datacentres. An availability set only spreads VMs across racks in one datacentre.

From Azure compute and storage

Which AWS CLI option filters the output on your machine using JMESPath?Related

Answer: --query

--query takes a JMESPath expression and filters the JSON before it is printed.

From The command line on all three clouds

Which command checks the syntax and references of your .tf files without contacting the cloud to plan changes?Related

Answer: terraform validate

validate checks the configuration itself. plan is the step that compares it with real infrastructure.

From Terraform for the cloud

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  1. 1 more topic in “Google Cloud and comparing the clouds” before its exam: The command line on all three clouds.
  2. Module 7 exam: Google Cloud and comparing the clouds · 12 questions · 20 min, without help. 4 topics of this module still to finish first.
  3. Then the next module, Containers in the cloud. 50 topics left in the course before the final exam.

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