In 2021, the trend of rapid cloud adoption continued in efforts for businesses to modernize environments, improve system reliability, and support other pandemic-related realities. This trend will likely continue as businesses see the need for the cloud in order to stay relevant and truly compete. According to Gartner’s estimations, the value of the worldwide public cloud service market will grow to a staggering $482 billion in 2022. The three main players in the cloud computing industry are Google Cloud Platform (GCP), Amazon Web Services (AWS), and Microsoft Azure.
Business leaders seeking cloud adoption or migration are met with an overwhelming amount of features, technologies, and solutions. Let’s face it, identifying even the best-suited cloud provider is difficult without proper consideration and strategy. In 2022, choosing a cloud provider remains an issue as feature comparisons become outdated and technology evolves. Yet getting to the cloud is just the beginning of a digital transformation journey, and there are key offerings by providers that separate them from the rest.
Let’s take a closer look at the top three names in the cloud provider industry for 2022 and how they compare in specific areas becoming more important to organizations.
Cloud Data Platform
Cloud data platforms are essentially the framework for enabling organizations to unlock their data advantage. While many organizations are rushing to adopt some cloud-based solutions, the underlying bedrock of data and analytics must be built properly and securely. Investing in flashy new technologies sounds great at first until it turns out the return on investment is not providing the intended benefits.
Cloud data platforms are a combination of components like:
- Data warehousing
- Data lakes
- Data engineering
- Data science
- Data application development
- Data exchange
AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform offer largely similar basic capabilities around flexible compute, storage and networking as part of their data platforms. So, when comparing Google Cloud vs. AWS vs. Azure in 2022, organizations have to dig deeper to find which cloud data platform is the best fit. Each organization’s needs and business goals are different.
Artificial Intelligence
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) is rapidly accelerating. Google Cloud Platform, Microsoft Azure, and Amazon Web Services all have some AI components to bolster their cloud-based offerings. Adding on the extra AI and ML capabilities to an already powerful cloud data platform offers numerous benefits, including better analytics and reduced errors and costs.
Each of the three dominant cloud providers has its own tools and solutions in terms of AI/ML capabilities. Yet one provider invests heavily in AI and ML capabilities to meet customers where they are. Google Cloud Platform’s Vertex AI brings together the Google Cloud services for building ML under one unified UI and API, to simplify the process of building, training, and deploying machine learning models at scale.
Additionally, Vertex AI requires nearly 80% fewer lines of code to train a model versus competitive platforms on AWS and Azure.
Recently unveiled in 2021, Vertex AI Workbench, Google’s newest AI and ML platform, aims to make the process of building and deploying ML models seamless and accessible to either a novice data scientist or an expert.
Google Cloud Platform is committed to making AI accessible to all, leading to a competitive edge in innovation for data-driven organizations.
Business Intelligence and Analytics
Data is just information without activation. Unlocking the true power of data stems from actions like building intelligent applications, helping people make better decisions, increasing automation, and ultimately changing how value is being created.
A major area to consider in the great Google Cloud vs. AWS vs. Azure debate is business analytics. Organizations are increasingly looking for solutions that are capable of going beyond the usual deployments. That means enabling tailored solutions by means of a multicloud strategy.
92% of businesses in 2021 reported having a multicloud strategy. Multicloud platforms enable customers to set up the optimal solution without being locked into a single provider. Most organizations have data stored in more than one database and spread across multiple cloud providers or on-premises.
Google Cloud continues to meet organizations where they are in regard to business intelligence. Anthos provides a single platform for multi-cloud management, allowing you to deploy applications across hybrid and multicloud without changing the underlying code.
Additionally, Looker gives you the tools to power a multitude of data experiences, from modern business intelligence and embedded analytics to workflow integrations and custom data apps. Google Cloud Platform continues its commitment to a multicloud approach, offering powerful tools and solutions to customers where their data resides.
Breaking Down Google Cloud vs. AWS vs. Azure in 2022
The top three cloud providers continue to make enormous strides in the marketplace each year. In the end, it comes down to the specific needs of an organization and what its goals may be.
When breaking down Google Cloud vs. AWS vs. Azure in 2022, essentially each is unique in its offerings. Organizations have the opportunity to choose from an abundance of options through each data platform. In terms of the future of data and analytics in 2022 and beyond, Google Cloud is a major player with innovation in areas such as cloud data platform solutions, artificial intelligence, and business intelligence. Despite market share numbers, choosing a cloud provider requires more consideration than a popularity contest.
Choosing a cloud provider can be tricky to navigate due to the overwhelming information available. That’s why Pandera is here to help. Our cloud experts analyze your business needs and choose the cloud computing design services and technologies that your business will benefit from the most.
We work hand-in-hand with organizations to fully strategize and optimize their cloud investments to maximize efficiency.
Reach out to us to harness the power of cloud expertise and realize the true value of data and analytics.