Comparison of commercial cloud implementations

“In a recent Virtustream/Forrester survey of more than 700 cloud decision makers, 86% of respondents said that their enterprises are deploying workloads across more than one CSP. We learn from the same survey that the prime motivation for adopting a multi-cloud strategy is to improve performance, followed by cost savings and faster delivery times. Today, the three leading CSPs are Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), with respective market shares of 62%, 20%, and 12%” https://n2ws.com/blog/aws-vs-azure-vs-google-cloud

Difficulties in selecting cloud platforms Information is relatively hard to find Most information provided by the companies themselves is aimed at selling Especially pricing options are really vague for some companies Terms and names for technologies vary, making it harder to categorize them Larger applications need broad selection of services and features Load balancing, scaling, databases, analytics, monitoring, push notifications etc. It’s hard to find the service, that has it all, is easy to use and is the cheapest Talking to colleagues in different companies working on different stacks, this really is an issue Google had great summary, IBM wanted you to contact sales

Pricing models Pay-as-you-go Subscription Pay-for-Resources Customer only pays what they use Most used pricing model for Cloud Customer may end up paying more than necessary Subscription Pay-for-Resources Cost based model, fair for both customer and provider Hybrid Models Subscription, but the amount exceeding set limits is billed as pay-as-you-go Fair for clients As pricing of the cloud services is constantly evolving it’s not relevant to dive too deeply to the price models offered by different providers, but the different schemes are good to understand Study referenced here lists lots of different pricing models. but the ones listed are the ones that are used on the platforms compared here Mazrekaj A. & co, Pricing Schemes in Cloud Computing: An Overview, https://thesai.org/Downloads/Volume7No2/Paper_11-Pricing_Schemes_in_Cloud_Computing_An_Overview.pdf

Compared services Amazon Web Services Microsoft Azure Google Cloud IBM Cloud (formerly Bluemix) Heroku OVH Pivotal Cloud Foundry

Amazon Web Services (AWS) The go-to cloud platform for most developers these days IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, FaaS Public cloud, virtual private cloud available Hosted service, hybrid available Pay-as-you-go Subscription pricing for some services Reserved capacity Volume discounts

Microsoft Azure The #1 competitor for AWS IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, FaaS Best option when using Micrsoft stack IaaS, PaaS, SaaS, FaaS Public and private clouds available Hosted, hybrid and on-premises options Pay-as-you-go Subscription pricing for some services Reserved capacity Volume discounts

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) Underdog challenger without the massive enteprise focus IaaS, PaaS, Faas Public cloud, virtual private cloud available Hosted Pay-as-you-go (Per-second-billing) Reserved capacity (Commited use discounts) Volume discounts

IBM Cloud A full-stack cloud platform that spans public, private and hybrid environments IaaS, PaaS, Saas, Faas Public cloud, private and virtual private cloud Hosted, Hybrid and on-premises Pay-as-you-go Subscription Reserved capacity Volume discounts

Heroku Platform as a service (PaaS) that enables developers to build, run, and operate applications entirely in the cloud PaaS Public cloud Hosted Pay-as-you-go Subscription

OVHcloud IaaS, PaaS, Saas, Faas Public cloud, private and virtual private cloud Hosted, Hybrid Pay-as-you-go Subscription

Pivotal Cloud Foundry Commercial offering built on the top of the open-source Cloud Foundry PaaS, Faas Public cloud Hosted Pay-as-you-go

Takeouts for the course Cloud platforms are developing in a accelerating rate and new platforms rise all the time It’s important to try and find the differences and pros and cons of services instead of getting familiar with one spesific service Pricing shouldn’t be a priority at all, but it’s good to mention that different (and sometimes confusing) models exist, and that the pricing is one key factor in ”the real life” Some comparison of the free-tiers and student discounts of different platforms might be helpful to encourage hobby projects

Overview

Thank you! Questions? Miika Heinonen