✓What You'll Learn
AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud are not interchangeable. Each has distinct strengths that make it significantly better or worse suited to specific business requirements. This guide helps you choose correctly.
AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform collectively control over 65% of the global cloud infrastructure market — but they are not interchangeable. Each platform has distinct strengths, pricing models, ecosystem advantages, and migration pathways that make them significantly better or worse suited to specific business requirements. Choosing the wrong hyperscaler is not catastrophic — you can migrate — but it is expensive and disruptive. This guide gives you the framework to choose correctly the first time.
At a Glance: The Three Platforms
| Dimension | AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
|---|---|---|---|
| Market share | ~33% | ~22% | ~11% |
| Strongest domain | Breadth of services | Enterprise/Microsoft integration | AI/ML, data analytics |
| Enterprise support | Excellent | Excellent (Microsoft relationship) | Good (improving) |
| AI/ML capability | Strong (SageMaker ecosystem) | Strong (OpenAI partnership) | Strongest (Vertex AI, TPUs) |
| Global regions | Most (33) | 60+ regions | 37 regions |
| Pricing complexity | Very complex | Complex | Simpler, sustained discounts |
When to Choose AWS
AWS is the right choice when: you need the broadest possible service catalogue; your team has the widest available skills market (AWS certifications are most common); you are a startup or scale-up that wants access to the AWS startup programme credits; or you have no existing relationship with Microsoft or Google that provides pricing or integration advantages. AWS's weaknesses are its pricing complexity and the coordination cost of its sprawling service catalogue.
When to Choose Azure
Azure is the right choice when: your organisation runs Microsoft 365 and Dynamics 365 (the integration advantages are substantial); you have existing Microsoft Enterprise Agreements that enable favourable Azure pricing; your compliance requirements align with Microsoft's government and regulated industry certifications; or you are deploying AI solutions built on OpenAI models (Azure OpenAI Service provides enterprise-grade access with Microsoft's security and compliance infrastructure).
When to Choose Google Cloud
Google Cloud is the right choice when: AI and machine learning are central to your use case (Google's Vertex AI and TPU infrastructure remain the most capable for ML workloads); your team is Google Workspace-native; you are working with large-scale data analytics (BigQuery remains the most cost-effective analytics data warehouse at scale); or you want simpler pricing with automatic sustained use discounts. For organisations combining cloud with data intelligence programmes, Google Cloud's BigQuery and Vertex AI combination provides a uniquely integrated capability.