By Published: 06 Jan 2021
AWS, Microsoft and Google each offer well over 100 cloud services. It's hard enough keeping tabs on what one cloud offers, so good luck trying to get a handle on the products from the three major providers.
Even trying to compare what's available in each cloud can quickly get convoluted, since naming conventions vary by vendor and service. For example, you can be forgiven for not knowing AWS Fargate, Microsoft Azure Container Instances and Google Cloud Run all essentially serve the same purpose.
So, if you ever feel at a loss for what's what, hopefully this cloud services cheat sheet will help. Consider it a guide for cloud directories -- a quick reference sheet for what each vendor calls the same service.
However, you can also use this as a starting point. You'll need to do your homework to get a more nuanced understanding of what distinguishes the offerings from one another. Follow some of the links throughout this piece and take that next step in dissecting these offerings.
That's because not all services are equal -- each has its own set of features and capabilities, and the functionality might vary widely across platforms. And just because a provider doesn't have a designated service in one of these categories, that doesn't mean it's impossible to achieve the same objective. For example, Google Cloud doesn't offer an explicit disaster recovery service, but it's certainly capable of supporting DR.
Here is our cloud services cheat sheet of the services available on AWS, Google Cloud and Azure. The list is broken down by category to help you start your cross-cloud analysis.
AI and machine learning
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| AI containers | AWS Deep Learning Containers | GPU support on AKS | Deep Learning Containers |
| AI machine images | AWS Deep Learning AMIs | Data Science Virtual Machines | Deep Learning VM Image |
| Chat bots builder | Amazon Lex | Azure Bot Service, QnA Maker | Dialogflow |
| Data labeling | Amazon SageMaker Ground Truth | Azure Machine Learning data labeling | Cloud Data Labeling |
| Document extraction, image content analysis | Amazon Textract | Azure Form Recognizer, Ink Recognizer, Computer Vision, Custom Vision | Vision API |
| Image and video recognition, indexing | Amazon Rekognition | Azure Face, Video Indexer | Video AI |
| Inference accelerator | Amazon Elastic Inference | GPUs on AKS | Cloud TPU, Edge TPU |
| Language recognition, sentiment analysis | Amazon Comprehend | Language Understanding, Text Analytics | Natural Language |
| Language translation | Amazon Translate | Speech Translation, Translator | Translation |
| Machine learning hardware | AWS Inferentia, AWS Trainium (preview*) | FPGA | Cloud TPU |
| Managed machine learning platform | Amazon SageMaker | Azure Machine Learning | Cloud AutoML |
| Online fraud detection | Amazon Fraud Detector | N/A | reCAPTCHA Enterprise |
| Prediction review and moderation | Amazon Augmented AI, Amazon SageMaker Clarify | Azure Content Moderator | N/A |
| Recommendation integration | Amazon Personalize | Personalizer | Recommendations AI (preview) |
| Speech recognition | Amazon Transcribe | Speaker Recognition, Speech to Text | Cloud Speech-to-Text API |
| Text-to-speech | Amazon Polly | Text to Speech | Cloud Text-to-Speech API |
| Time-series forecasting | Amazon Forecast | N/A | N/A |
| Vision/speech modeling packaged devices | AWS DeepLens | Azure Kinect DK | N/A |
Analytics
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Big data processing | Amazon EMR | Azure Databricks, Azure HDInsight | Dataproc |
| Business analytics | Amazon QuickSight | Power BI Embedded | Looker, Google Data Studio |
| Data lake creation | Amazon HealthLake (preview), AWS Lake Formation | Azure Data Lake Storage | Cloud Storage |
| Data sharing | AWS Data Exchange, AWS Lake Formation | Azure Data Share | Cloud Dataprep (partnership with Trifacta) |
| Data warehousing | Amazon Redshift | Azure Synapse Analytics | BigQuery |
| ETL | AWS Glue, Amazon Kinesis Data Firehose, Amazon SageMaker Data Wrangler | Azure Data Factory | Cloud Data Fusion, Dataflow, Dataproc |
| Hosted Hadoop/Spark | Amazon EMR | Azure HDInsight | Dataproc |
| Managed search | Amazon CloudSearch, Amazon Elasticsearch Service, Amazon Kendra | Azure Cognitive Search, Bing Search services | Cloud Search |
| Managed Kafka | Amazon Managed Streaming for Apache Kafka | Azure Event Hubs for Apache Kafka | N/A (available through a partnership with Confluent) |
| Real-time data streaming | Amazon Kinesis Data Analytics, Amazon Kinesis Data Streams | Azure Stream Analytics | Dataflow, Pub/Sub |
| Query service, data exploration | Amazon Athena, Amazon Elasticsearch Service, Amazon Managed Service for Grafana (preview) | SQL Server ML Services, Big Data Clusters (Spark), Data Lake Analytics, SQL Server Analysis Services, Azure Data Explorer | BigQuery |
Application integration
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| API development and management | Amazon API Gateway, AWS AppSync | Azure API Apps | API Gateway (preview), Apigee, Cloud Endpoints |
| Distributed app coordination | Amazon Simple Workflow Service, AWS Step Functions | Logic Apps | Cloud Tasks |
| Event routing, third-party integration | Amazon AppFlow, Amazon EventBridge, Amazon Simple Notification Service | Event Grid | Pub/Sub |
| Messaging | Amazon MQ, Amazon Simple Queue Service | Queue Storage, Service Bus | Pub/Sub |
| Service discovery | AWS Cloud Map | N/A | N/A |
| Service mesh | AWS App Mesh | Azure Service Fabric Mesh (preview) | Anthos Service Mesh |
| Workflow orchestration | AWS Data Pipeline | Logic Apps | Cloud Composer |
Business applications**
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Collaboration tool suite | N/A | Microsoft 365 | Google Workspace |
| Document sharing and storage | Amazon WorkDocs | Microsoft Word | Google Docs |
| Email and calendar | Amazon WorkMail | Outlook | Gmail |
| Low-code/no-code | Amazon Honeycode (preview) | Microsoft PowerApps, Project Bonsai (preview) | AppSheet |
| Video calls and chat | Amazon Chime | Microsoft Teams | Google Meet |
| Voice assistant | Alexa for Business | Cortana | Google Assistant |
Compute
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Autoscaling | AWS EC2 Auto Scaling | Azure Autoscale, Azure virtual machine scale sets | Managed instance groups (MIGs) |
| Batch scheduling, executing and processing | AWS Batch | Azure Batch | Batch on GKE (preview) |
| Functions as a service | AWS Lambda | Azure Functions | Cloud Functions |
| 5G-based infrastructure | AWS Wavelength | Azure Edge Zones | Global Mobile Edge Cloud (GMEC) |
| High performance computing cluster management | AWS ParallelCluster | Azure CycleCloud | N/A |
| Isolated servers | Dedicated Instances | Azure Dedicated Host | Sole-tenant Nodes, Shielded VMs |
| PaaS | AWS Elastic Beanstalk | App Service, Azure Cloud Services, Azure Spring Cloud, Azure Red Hat OpenShift | App Engine |
| On-premises/edge devices | AWS Outposts, AWS Snow Family | Azure Stack Hub, Azure Stack HCI (preview), Azure Stack Edge | N/A |
| Quantum computing | Amazon Braket | Azure Quantum (preview) | N/A |
| Virtual machines | Amazon EC2 | Virtual Machines | Compute Engine |
| Virtual private server | Amazon Lightsail | N/A | N/A |
| VMware integration | VMware Cloud on AWS | Azure VMware Solution | VMware Engine |
Containers
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Container registry | Amazon Elastic Container Registry (ECR), ECR Public | Azure Container Registry | Artifact Registry (preview), Container Registry |
| Managed container service | Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS), Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) | Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) | Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) |
| Serverless container environment | AWS Fargate | Azure Container Instances (ACI) | Cloud Run |
Cost controls
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Long-term commitment discount programs | EC2 Reserved Instances, Savings Plans | Reservations, Azure Hybrid Benefit | Committed use discounts, sustained use discounts |
| Low-cost, interruptible VMs | EC2 Spot | Azure Spot Virtual Machines | Preemptible Virtual Machines |
| Optimization tools | Amazon CodeGuru, Amazon DevOps Guru (preview), AWS Compute Optimizer, AWS Trusted Advisor, AWS Well-Architected Tool | Azure Advisor, Azure Well-Architected Review | Recommender, Network Intelligence Center, Cloud Profiler |
| Spending tracker and analysis | AWS Budgets, AWS Cost Anomaly Detection, AWS Cost Explorer, AWS Cost and Usage Report | Azure Cost Management and Billing | Cost Management |
Databases
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Blockchain | Amazon Managed Blockchain, Amazon Quantum Ledger Database (QLDB) | Azure Blockchain Service (preview), Azure Blockchain Tokens (preview), Azure Blockchain Workbench (preview) | N/A |
| In-memory caching | Amazon ElastiCache (Memcached, Redis) | Azure Cache for Redis | Cloud Memorystore |
| NoSQL: Column-family | Amazon Keyspaces (for Apache Cassandra) | Azure Cosmos DB | Cloud Bigtable |
| NoSQL: Document | Amazon DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility), Amazon DynamoDB | Azure Cosmos DB | Cloud Firestore, Firebase Realtime Database |
| NoSQL: Graph | Amazon Neptune | Azure Cosmos DB Gremlin API | N/A |
| NoSQL: Key-value | Amazon DynamoDB, Amazon Keyspaces | Azure Cosmos DB, Table storage | Cloud Bigtable, Firestore |
| Relational database management system | Amazon Aurora, Amazon RDS (MySQL, PostgreSQL, Oracle, SQL Server, MariaDB), Amazon RDS on VMware | Azure Database (MySQL, MariaDB, PostgreSQL), Azure SQL (Database, Edge, Managed Instance) | Cloud SQL (MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server), Cloud Spanner |
| Time-series database | Amazon Timestream | Azure Time Series Insights | Cloud Bigtable |
Developer tools
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| App configuration parameter storage | AWS AppConfig | App Configuration | Cloud Storage |
| Artifact management | AWS CodeArtifact | Azure Artifacts, GitHub Packages | Artifact Registry (preview) |
| Code debugging | AWS X-Ray | Visual Studio Code | Cloud Debugger, Firebase Crashlytics |
| CI/CD | AWS CodeBuild, AWS CodeDeploy, AWS CodePipeline, AWS CodeStar | Azure DevOps, Azure Pipelines | Cloud Build, Tekton |
| Development kits | AWS Cloud Development Kit, Amazon Corretto | Azure SDKs | Cloud SDK |
| IDEs and other tools for interacting with cloud resources | AWS Cloud9, AWS CLI, AWS CloudShell, Amazon EMR Studio | Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, Azure Cloud Shell, Visual Studio, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio Codespaces | Cloud Code, Tools for Eclipse, Tools for PowerShell |
| Lab environment | N/A | Azure Lab Services | N/A |
| Mobile and Web app development | AWS Amplify | App Service, Mobile Apps, Xamarin with Azure, Web Apps, Static Web Apps (preview) | Google Firebase |
| Mobile and web app testing | AWS Device Farm | Visual Studio App Center Test, Azure Test Plans | Google Firebase Test Lab |
| Private Git repository | AWS CodeCommit | Azure Repos | Cloud Source Repositories |
IoT
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Cloud-device connections, data collection and management | AWS IoT Analytics, AWS IoT Core, AWS IoT Device Defender, AWS IoT Device Management, AWS IoT Events, AWS IoT SiteWise | Azure IoT Central, Azure IoT Hub, Azure Defender for IoT, Azure Sphere | Cloud IoT Core |
| IoT edge compute | AWS Greengrass | Azure IoT Edge | Edge TPU |
| Microcontroller OS | FreeRTOS | Azure RTOS | N/A |
| Virtual modeling | AWS IoT Things Graph | Azure Digital Twins (preview) | N/A |
Management and governance
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Automation | AWS CloudFormation, AWS Proton (preview), AWS OpsWorks | Azure Resource Manager, Azure Automation | Cloud Deployment Manager, Cloud Scheduler |
| Anomaly detection | CloudWatch Anomaly Detection | Anomaly Detector | Anomaly Detection |
| Application portfolio governance | AWS Service Catalog | Azure Managed Applications, Azure Blueprints (preview) | Private Catalog |
| Automated Windows Server management | N/A | Azure Automanage (preview) | N/A |
| Configuration management | AWS Config | Azure App Configuration | Cloud Asset Inventory |
| Health dashboard | Personal Health Dashboard | Resource Health, Azure Service Health | Cloud Monitoring |
| Hybrid and multi-cloud management | Amazon EKS Anywhere (preview), Amazon ECS Anywhere (preview) | Azure Arc | Google Anthos |
| License management | AWS License Manager | N/A | N/A |
| Monitoring | Amazon CloudWatch, Amazon CloudWatch Logs, AWS Transit Gateway Network Manager, Amazon Lookout for Metrics (preview), Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus (preview) | Azure Monitor, Network Watcher, Log Analytics | Operations, Cloud Operations for GKE (formerly Stackdriver), Network Intelligence Center |
| Multi-account management | AWS Control Tower, AWS Organizations | Azure Management Groups, Azure Lighthouse | N/A |
| Policy management | AWS Organizations | Azure Policy | Organization Policy Service |
| Telemetry collection and response | AWS Systems Manager | Azure Monitor | Service Monitoring (preview) |
| Web-based user interface | AWS Management Console | Azure Portal | Cloud Console |
Migration
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Database migration | AWS Database Migration Service | Azure Database Migration Service | Database Migration Service (preview) |
| Data transfer appliance | Snow Family | Data Box | Transfer Appliance |
| Disaster recovery | CloudEndure Disaster Recovery | Azure Site Recovery | N/A |
| Online data transfer | AWS DataSync, AWS Transfer Family | Azure File Sync | BigQuery Data Transfer Service, Cloud Data Transfer |
| On-premises application analysis | AWS Application Discovery Service, Migration Evaluator | Azure Migrate, Movere, Azure Resource Mover (preview) | N/A |
| On-premises and cloud storage integration | Storage Gateway | StorSimple | N/A (offered by partner Cloudian) |
| Migration tracker | AWS Migration Hub | Azure Migrate | N/A |
| Server migration | AWS App2Container, AWS Server Migration Service, CloudEndure Migration | Azure Migrate | Migrate for Anthos, Migrate for Compute Engine, VM migration |
Miscellaneous
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Customer engagement | Amazon Connect, Contact Lens for Amazon Connect | Azure Communication Services (preview) | Contact Center AI |
| End user communications | Amazon Pinpoint, Amazon Simple Email Service | Azure Notification Hubs | Firebase Cloud Messaging |
| Gaming | Amazon GameLift, Amazon Lumberyard | Game Stack | Game Servers |
| Geolocation APIs and services | Amazon Maps API, Amazon Location Service (preview) | Azure Maps | Google Maps Platform |
| Genomics | N/A | Microsoft Genomics | Cloud Life Sciences (preview) |
| Industrial and other workplace monitoring tools | Amazon Lookout for Vision, Amazon Lookout for Equipment, Amazon Panorama, Amazon Monitron | Azure IoT | Vision AI |
| Media services | Amazon Elastic Transcoder, AWS Elemental suite, Amazon Interactive Video Service, Amazon Kinesis Video Streams | Azure Media Player, Content Protection, Encoding, Live and On-Demand Streaming, Live Video Analytics (preview), Media Services | OpenCue |
| Mobile access to internal web apps | Amazon WorkLink | N/A | Identity-Aware Proxy |
| Robotics application development | AWS RoboMaker | N/A | Cloud Robotics Core |
| Satellite ground stations | AWS Ground Station | Azure Orbital (preview) | N/A |
| Virtual desktop | Amazon WorkSpaces, Amazon AppStream 2.0 | Windows Virtual Desktop | N/A |
| Virtual reality, mixed reality app development | Amazon Sumerian | Azure Digital Twins (preview), Kinect DK, Remote Rendering (preview), Spatial Anchors | Google VR |
Networking
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Build, deploy and manage APIs | Amazon API Gateway | Azure API Apps, API Management | Apigee API Management Platform |
| Content delivery network | Amazon CloudFront | Content Delivery Network (CDN) | Cloud CDN |
| Dedicated fiber connection between VPCs and private network | AWS Direct Connect | Azure ExpressRoute | Cloud Interconnect |
| Domain name system | Amazon Route 53 | Azure DNS | Cloud DNS |
| Load balancing | Elastic Load Balancing (ELB) | Application Gateway, Load Balancer, Traffic Manager | Cloud Load Balancing |
| Network accelerator | AWS Global Accelerator | Accelerated Networking | Premium Network Service Tier |
| Network area translation | NAT Gateway | Virtual Network NAT | Cloud NAT |
| Satellite ground station | AWS Ground Station | Azure Orbital (preview) | N/A |
| Service discovery | Amazon ECS, AWS Cloud Map | N/A | Service Discovery (preview) |
| Traffic control plane | AWS App Mesh | Azure Front Door, Azure Service Fabric | Traffic Director |
| Virtual WAN | N/A | Virtual WAN | N/A |
| VPC | Amazon VPC | Azure Virtual Network | Virtual Private Cloud |
| VPC/VM secure connector | AWS Transit Gateway, AWS VPN | Azure Bastion, Azure Private Link, Azure VPN gateway | Cloud VPN, Direct Peering |
Security
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Audit and compliance reports | AWS Artifact, AWS Audit Manager | Service Trust Portal | N/A |
| Centralized security management | AWS Security Hub | Security Center | Security Command Center |
| Certificate management | AWS Certificate Manager | App Service Certificates | Certificate Authority Service (preview) |
| Confidential computing | AWS Nitro Enclaves | Azure Confidential Computing | Confidential Computing (preview) |
| Container deploy-time security control | N/A | N/A | Binary Authorization |
| Data discovery and classification | Amazon Macie | Data Discovery & Classification (feature of Azure SQL Database, Azure SQL Managed Instance and Azure Synapse Analytics) | Data Catalog, Cloud Data Loss Prevention |
| Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) protection | AWS Shield | Azure DDoS Protection | Google Cloud Armor |
| End-user identity management | Amazon Cognito | Azure Active Directory B2C | Firebase Authentication |
| Firewall management | AWS Firewall Manager, AWS WAF | Azure Firewall, Web Application Firewall | Cloud Armor, Cloud firewalls |
| Identity and access management | AWS Identity and Access Management | Azure Active Directory, role-based access control (Azure RBAC) | Identity and Access Management, Identity Platform, Identity-Aware Proxy |
| Key management | AWS Key Management Service, AWS CloudHSM | Key Vault, Azure Dedicated HSM | Cloud Key Management |
| Multifactor authentication | AWS Multi-Factor Authentication | Azure MFA | Google Authenticator, Titan Security Key |
| Microsoft Active Directory compatible directory service | AWS Directory Service for Microsoft Active Directory | Azure Active Directory Domain Service | Managed Service for Microsoft Active Directory |
| Resource access management | AWS Resource Access Manager | Azure Resource Manager | Resource Manager |
| Security data analysis | Amazon Detective | Security Center | Chronicle |
| Secrets management | AWS Secrets Manager | Azure Key Vault | Secret Manager |
| Single sign-on | AWS Single Sign-On | Azure Active Directory single single-on | Cloud Identity |
| Signoff for cloud provider data access requests | N/A | Customer Lockbox | Access Transparency |
| Threat Detection | Amazon GuardDuty | Advanced Threat Protection, Azure Defender | Chronicle, Phishing Protection, Web Risk, Event Threat Detection (preview) |
| Vulnerability scanning | Amazon Inspector | Security Center | Web Security Scanner |
Storage
| AWS | Azure | Google Cloud |
| Archival storage | S3 Glacier, S3 Glacier Deep Archive | Archive Storage | Archive Storage |
| Backup | AWS Backup | Azure Backup | N/A |
| Block storage | Amazon Block Store (EBS) | Disk Storage | Persistent Disk, Local SSD |
| File storage | Amazon Elastic File Service (EFS), Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, Amazon FSx for Lustre | File Storage, Azure NetApp Files | Filestore |
| Object storage | Amazon S3 | Blob storage | Cloud Storage, Cloud Storage for Firebase |
*AWS, Google and Microsoft use different terminology to describe services that are in preview, beta or alpha. For the purposes of this piece, any service that is not generally available is listed as being in preview.
**Several Google and Microsoft services in this section are not explicitly available through Google Cloud Platform and Microsoft Azure, respectively. They are part of each vendor's broader cloud portfolio.
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