Cloud Infrastructure for SaaS: AWS, Azure, and GCP Comparison

Choosing the right cloud platform is crucial for SaaS success. Each major cloud provider—AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP)—offers unique advantages and services tailored for different use cases. This comprehensive guide compares these platforms to help you make an informed decision for your SaaS application.

1. Platform Overview

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Market Position: Market leader with the largest cloud infrastructure globally

Strengths:

• Mature Ecosystem: Extensive service catalog with 200+ services
• Global Reach: 84 availability zones across 26 regions
• Enterprise Adoption: Trusted by large enterprises worldwide
• Innovation Leader: First to market with many cloud services
• Third-party Integration: Largest marketplace and partner ecosystem

Best For: Established SaaS companies, complex architectures, global scale

Microsoft Azure

Market Position: Strong second place, especially in enterprise markets

Strengths:

• Microsoft Integration: Seamless integration with Microsoft products
• Enterprise Focus: Strong Active Directory and Windows Server support
• Hybrid Cloud: Excellent on-premises to cloud migration tools
• AI and ML Services: Comprehensive AI platform with Azure Cognitive Services
• Government Compliance: Strong compliance and security certifications

Best For: Microsoft-centric organizations, hybrid deployments, enterprise SaaS

Google Cloud Platform (GCP)

Market Position: Third largest, but growing rapidly with strong technical innovation

Strengths:

• Data Analytics: Leading BigQuery and data processing services
• Machine Learning: Advanced AI/ML services powered by Google's research
• Kubernetes: Native Kubernetes support (Google created Kubernetes)
• Performance: High-performance computing and networking
• Pricing: Competitive pricing with sustained use discounts

Best For: Data-heavy applications, AI/ML workloads, modern cloud-native architectures

2. Compute Services Comparison

Virtual Machines

Feature	AWS EC2	Azure VMs	GCP Compute Engine
Instance Types	400+ types	700+ sizes	40+ machine types
Custom Sizing	Limited	Yes	Yes (custom machine types)
Spot Instances	Spot Instances	Spot VMs	Preemptible VMs
Auto Scaling	Auto Scaling Groups	VM Scale Sets	Managed Instance Groups
Live Migration	No	Yes	Yes

Container Services

AWS:

• ECS: Proprietary container orchestration
• EKS: Managed Kubernetes service
• Fargate: Serverless containers

Azure:

• AKS: Azure Kubernetes Service
• Container Instances: Serverless containers
• Service Fabric: Microservices platform

GCP:

• GKE: Google Kubernetes Engine (most mature)
• Cloud Run: Serverless containers
• Anthos: Multi-cloud Kubernetes platform

Serverless Computing

Feature	AWS Lambda	Azure Functions	GCP Cloud Functions
Languages	10+ languages	8+ languages	6+ languages
Max Execution	15 minutes	10 minutes	9 minutes
Memory Limit	10,008 MB	1.5 GB	8 GB
Concurrent Executions	1,000 (default)	200 (default)	1,000 (default)
Cold Start	Moderate	Slower	Fastest

3. Database Services

Relational Databases

AWS:

• RDS: MySQL, PostgreSQL, MariaDB, Oracle, SQL Server
• Aurora: High-performance MySQL/PostgreSQL compatible
• Aurora Serverless: On-demand, auto-scaling database

Azure:

• SQL Database: Fully managed SQL Server
• Database for MySQL/PostgreSQL: Managed open-source databases
• SQL Managed Instance: Near 100% SQL Server compatibility

GCP:

• Cloud SQL: MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQL Server
• AlloyDB: High-performance PostgreSQL compatible
• Spanner: Globally distributed relational database

NoSQL Databases

AWS:

• DynamoDB: Managed NoSQL with single-digit millisecond latency
• DocumentDB: MongoDB-compatible document database
• Neptune: Graph database

Azure:

• Cosmos DB: Multi-model database with global distribution
• Table Storage: Key-value store
• Cache for Redis: In-memory data store

GCP:

• Firestore: Document database
• Bigtable: Wide-column database for analytics
• Memorystore: Redis and Memcached

4. Storage Services

Object Storage

Feature	AWS S3	Azure Blob Storage	GCP Cloud Storage
Durability	99.999999999% (11 9's)	99.999999999% (11 9's)	99.999999999% (11 9's)
Storage Classes	6 classes	3 tiers	4 classes
CDN Integration	CloudFront	Azure CDN	Cloud CDN
Transfer Acceleration	Yes	Yes	Yes
Lifecycle Management	Yes	Yes	Yes

Block Storage

AWS EBS:

• gp3: General purpose SSD (up to 16,000 IOPS)
• io2: Provisioned IOPS SSD (up to 64,000 IOPS)
• st1: Throughput optimized HDD

Azure Managed Disks:

• Premium SSD: High-performance SSD
• Standard SSD: Cost-effective SSD
• Ultra Disk: Highest performance (up to 160,000 IOPS)

GCP Persistent Disk:

• SSD Persistent Disk: High-performance SSD
• Standard Persistent Disk: Cost-effective HDD
• Extreme Persistent Disk: Highest performance

5. Networking and CDN

Content Delivery Network

AWS CloudFront:

• Edge Locations: 400+ locations globally
• Lambda@Edge: Run code at edge locations
• Shield: DDoS protection included

Azure CDN:

• Points of Presence: 130+ locations
• Integration: Deep Azure service integration
• Front Door: Global load balancer with CDN

GCP Cloud CDN:

• Edge Locations: 140+ locations
• Integration: Tight GCP integration
• Cloud Armor: DDoS and WAF protection

Load Balancing

AWS:

• Application Load Balancer: Layer 7 HTTP/HTTPS
• Network Load Balancer: Layer 4 TCP/UDP
• Gateway Load Balancer: Layer 3 gateway

Azure:

• Load Balancer: Layer 4 load balancing
• Application Gateway: Layer 7 with WAF
• Front Door: Global HTTP load balancer

GCP:

• HTTP(S) Load Balancer: Global Layer 7
• Network Load Balancer: Regional Layer 4
• Internal Load Balancer: Internal traffic distribution

6. Security and Identity

Identity and Access Management

AWS IAM:

• Users, Groups, Roles: Comprehensive identity management
• Policies: JSON-based permission policies
• STS: Security Token Service for temporary credentials
• Organizations: Multi-account management

Azure Active Directory:

• Azure AD: Enterprise identity service
• RBAC: Role-based access control
• Conditional Access: Context-aware access policies
• Privileged Identity Management: Just-in-time access

GCP IAM:

• Google Cloud IAM: Unified access control
• Service Accounts: Application identity
• Identity-Aware Proxy: Zero-trust access
• Organization Policies: Centralized policy management

Security Services

AWS Security:

• GuardDuty: Threat detection service
• Security Hub: Centralized security findings
• WAF: Web application firewall
• KMS: Key management service

Azure Security:

• Security Center: Unified security management
• Sentinel: Cloud-native SIEM
• Key Vault: Secrets management
• Application Gateway WAF: Web application firewall

GCP Security:

• Security Command Center: Security management
• Cloud Security Scanner: Vulnerability scanning
• Cloud KMS: Key management
• Cloud Armor: DDoS and WAF protection

7. Monitoring and Logging

Monitoring Services

AWS:

• CloudWatch: Monitoring and observability
• X-Ray: Distributed tracing
• Systems Manager: Operational insights

Azure:

• Monitor: Comprehensive monitoring platform
• Application Insights: APM service
• Log Analytics: Log data analysis

GCP:

• Cloud Monitoring: Infrastructure and application monitoring
• Cloud Trace: Distributed tracing
• Cloud Profiler: Application performance profiling

8. Pricing Comparison

Compute Pricing (per hour, US East)

Instance Type	AWS	Azure	GCP
2 vCPU, 8GB RAM	$0.0928	$0.096	$0.095
4 vCPU, 16GB RAM	$0.1856	$0.192	$0.190
8 vCPU, 32GB RAM	$0.3712	$0.384	$0.380

Storage Pricing (per GB/month)

Storage Type	AWS	Azure	GCP
Object Storage (Standard)	$0.023	$0.0184	$0.020
Block Storage (SSD)	$0.10	$0.0625	$0.040
Database Storage	$0.115	$0.115	$0.090

Data Transfer Pricing

AWS: $0.09/GB for first 10TB out to internet Azure: $0.087/GB for first 5GB out to internet GCP: $0.12/GB for first 1TB out to internet

Note: Pricing varies by region and changes frequently. Check current pricing.

9. SaaS-Specific Considerations

Multi-Tenancy Support

AWS:

• Organizations: Multi-account isolation
• Resource Tagging: Tenant-based resource management
• IAM: Fine-grained access control

Azure:

• Azure AD B2B/B2C: Customer identity management
• Resource Groups: Logical resource organization
• Subscriptions: Billing and resource isolation

GCP:

• Projects: Resource and billing isolation
• Organizations: Hierarchical resource management
• IAM: Granular permission control

Compliance and Certifications

Common Certifications:

• SOC 1/2/3: All three platforms
• ISO 27001: All three platforms
• GDPR: All three platforms compliant
• HIPAA: All three platforms support HIPAA

Platform-Specific:

• AWS: FedRAMP High, DoD SRG
• Azure: FedRAMP High, DoD Impact Level 5
• GCP: FedRAMP High, ISO 27017/27018

Auto-Scaling Capabilities

AWS:

• Auto Scaling Groups: EC2 instance scaling
• Application Auto Scaling: Service-specific scaling
• Predictive Scaling: ML-powered scaling

Azure:

• VM Scale Sets: Virtual machine scaling
• App Service Auto Scale: Web app scaling
• Autoscale: Metric-based scaling

GCP:

• Managed Instance Groups: VM scaling
• Kubernetes HPA: Pod-level scaling
• Cloud Functions: Automatic serverless scaling

10. Migration Considerations

Migration Tools

AWS Migration Services:

• AWS Migration Hub: Centralized migration tracking
• Database Migration Service: Database migration
• Server Migration Service: VM migration

Azure Migration Services:

• Azure Migrate: Assessment and migration hub
• Database Migration Service: Database migration
• Site Recovery: Disaster recovery and migration

GCP Migration Services:

• Migrate for Compute Engine: VM migration
• Database Migration Service: Database migration
• Transfer Service: Data transfer service

Vendor Lock-in Considerations

Strategies to Minimize Lock-in:

• Multi-cloud Architecture: Use multiple providers
• Containerization: Docker and Kubernetes for portability
• Open Source Tools: Prefer open-source solutions
• Standard APIs: Use standard protocols and APIs
• Infrastructure as Code: Terraform for multi-cloud deployments

Decision Framework

Choose AWS When:

• Mature Ecosystem: Need extensive service catalog
• Global Scale: Require worldwide presence
• Enterprise Adoption: Working with large enterprises
• Third-party Integration: Need extensive marketplace
• Innovation: Want latest cloud services first

Choose Azure When:

• Microsoft Stack: Using .NET, Windows, Office 365
• Enterprise Integration: Need Active Directory integration
• Hybrid Cloud: Migrating from on-premises
• Government: Require government compliance
• AI Services: Need comprehensive AI platform

Choose GCP When:

• Data Analytics: Heavy data processing requirements
• Machine Learning: Advanced AI/ML capabilities needed
• Kubernetes: Container-first architecture
• Performance: Need high-performance computing
• Cost Optimization: Want competitive pricing

Conclusion

Each cloud platform offers unique advantages for SaaS applications:

Key Takeaways:

AWS: Best for mature SaaS companies needing comprehensive services and global reach Azure: Ideal for Microsoft-centric organizations and enterprise customers GCP: Perfect for data-heavy applications and modern cloud-native architectures

Selection Criteria:

1. Technical Requirements: Match services to your needs
2. Team Expertise: Consider existing team knowledge
3. Cost Structure: Analyze total cost of ownership
4. Compliance Needs: Ensure regulatory requirements are met
5. Growth Plans: Consider scalability and global expansion
6. Integration Requirements: Evaluate existing system compatibility

Best Practices:

• Start Small: Begin with one platform and expand gradually
• Pilot Projects: Test with non-critical workloads first
• Cost Monitoring: Implement cost tracking from day one
• Multi-cloud Strategy: Consider multi-cloud for critical applications
• Regular Reviews: Reassess platform choice as needs evolve

The right choice depends on your specific requirements, team expertise, and business goals. Consider running proof-of-concepts on multiple platforms before making a final decision.