Cloud Provider Notes
Cloud Provider Comparison
Cloud providers expose similar platform capabilities with different operating models, constraints, naming, and integration points. Compare providers by the workload and organization, not by a generic feature checklist.
Comparison dimensions
Compare providers across:
- Existing skills and operational maturity.
- Required regions and data residency.
- Identity integration.
- Network connectivity and private access.
- Runtime platforms.
- Managed data services.
- Security tooling and audit evidence.
- Cost model and discount commitments.
- Vendor and procurement constraints.
Capability map
| Capability | AWS | Azure | GCP |
|---|---|---|---|
| Managed Kubernetes | EKS | AKS | GKE |
| Managed containers | ECS/Fargate | Container Apps | Cloud Run |
| Functions | Lambda | Functions | Cloud Functions |
| Object storage | S3 | Blob Storage | Cloud Storage |
| Relational database | RDS/Aurora | Azure SQL | Cloud SQL/Spanner |
| Secrets | Secrets Manager | Key Vault | Secret Manager |
| Audit logs | CloudTrail | Activity Logs | Cloud Audit Logs |
| Policy | Config/Control Tower | Azure Policy | Org Policy |
Selection guidance
- Prefer the provider the client can operate well.
- Prefer managed services when they satisfy compliance and portability needs.
- Prefer one primary provider unless there is a concrete multi-cloud or hybrid requirement.
- Document portability boundaries instead of promising generic portability.
Watchouts
- Equivalent service names do not mean equivalent behavior.
- Managed services differ in quota, networking, IAM, and failure modes.
- Multi-cloud increases governance, identity, networking, and evidence complexity.