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AWS vs Azure vs GCP

Beginner14 min read📅 Updated: 2026-02-17

Introduction

Cloud provider select pannradhu oru big decision. AWS, Azure, GCP — moonu um powerful, moonu um different strengths vachirukaanga. 🤔


"Best cloud evadhu?" nu direct ah answer panna mudiyaadhu — unga use case, budget, team skills — ellam matter pannum.


Indha article la detailed comparison paapom — especially AI/ML perspective la. Tables, real examples, pricing — ellam cover pannrom. Let's go! ⚡

Cloud Market Overview (2026)

Current cloud market scenario:


ProviderMarket ShareRevenue (Yearly)Strength
AWS~32%$100B+Most services, mature
Azure~23%$75B+Enterprise, Microsoft
GCP~11%$40B+AI/ML, Data analytics
Others~34%-Alibaba, Oracle, IBM

Key insight: AWS dominant dhaan, but GCP fastest growing — especially AI space la. Azure enterprise customers la strong. 📊


Fun fact: Netflix runs on AWS, LinkedIn runs on Azure, Spotify runs on GCP! 🎬💼🎵

AI/ML Services Comparison

AI/ML services — idhudhaan namma ku most important:


AI ServiceAWSAzureGCP
ML PlatformSageMakerAzure MLVertex AI
Pre-trained ModelsBedrockAzure OpenAIModel Garden
AutoMLSageMaker AutopilotAutoMLAutoML
GPU OptionsP5, G5 instancesNC, ND seriesA2, G2 (TPUs!)
LLM AccessClaude, LlamaGPT-4, GPT-4oGemini, PaLM
Vision AIRekognitionComputer VisionVision AI
Speech AITranscribe/PollySpeech ServiceSpeech-to-Text
NLPComprehendLanguage ServiceNatural Language

Winner for AI: GCP 🏆 — TPU access, Vertex AI platform, and Google's AI research directly integrate aagudhu.


Runner up: Azure — OpenAI partnership, GPT-4 direct access.

Pricing Deep Dive

Pricing compare pannrom — small AI app scenario:


Scenario: AI chatbot, 10K users/day, 1 GPU for inference


ResourceAWSAzureGCP
Compute (2 vCPU, 8GB)$60/mo$58/mo$52/mo
GPU (T4, 100hrs)$350/mo$365/mo$330/mo
Storage (100GB)$2.30/mo$2.40/mo$2.00/mo
Database (Small)$15/mo$15/mo$12/mo
Load Balancer$18/mo$18/mo$18/mo
**Total****~$445****~$458****~$414**

GCP slightly cheaper for AI workloads! Plus TPU access extra advantage.


⚠️ Note: Prices change frequently. Always check official pricing pages. Spot instances use pannina 60-70% save pannalam! 💰

Cloud Provider AI Stack Comparison

🏗️ Architecture Diagram
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│        CLOUD AI STACK COMPARISON                  │
├────────────┬────────────┬────────────────────────┤
│    AWS     │   AZURE    │         GCP            │
├────────────┼────────────┼────────────────────────┤
│            │            │                        │
│ Bedrock    │ Azure      │ Vertex AI              │
│ (LLM Hub) │ OpenAI     │ (ML Platform)          │
│            │ Service    │                        │
│ SageMaker  │ Azure ML   │ AI Platform            │
│ (Train)    │ Studio     │ + TPUs                 │
│            │            │                        │
│ Lambda     │ Functions  │ Cloud Functions         │
│ (Serverless)│(Serverless)│(Serverless)            │
│            │            │                        │
│ EC2+GPU    │ NC/ND VMs  │ Compute+GPU/TPU        │
│ (Compute)  │ (Compute)  │ (Compute)              │
│            │            │                        │
│ S3         │ Blob       │ Cloud Storage          │
│ (Storage)  │ Storage    │ (Storage)              │
│            │            │                        │
└────────────┴────────────┴────────────────────────┘

AWS — The Market Leader

Amazon Web Services (AWS) — largest cloud provider 🥇


Strengths ✅:

  • 200+ services — anything you need, irukku
  • Most mature, most documentation
  • Largest community, most tutorials
  • Best marketplace (AMIs, SageMaker models)
  • Global — 33 regions, 105 availability zones

Weaknesses ❌:

  • Complex pricing — bill predict panna kashtam
  • UI/Console old feeling — Azure, GCP better
  • AI services not as cutting-edge as GCP

Best AI Services:

  • SageMaker — End-to-end ML platform
  • Bedrock — Multiple LLMs (Claude, Llama, Titan) oru place la
  • Lambda — Serverless AI inference (cheap!)

Best for: Large teams, enterprise, job market value 💼

Azure — The Enterprise King

Microsoft Azure — enterprise favorite 🥈


Strengths ✅:

  • OpenAI exclusive partnership — GPT-4 direct access!
  • Microsoft ecosystem (Office 365, Teams, GitHub) integration
  • Enterprise compliance — HIPAA, SOC2, etc. ready
  • Hybrid cloud best — on-premises + cloud seamless
  • GitHub Copilot backend runs on Azure

Weaknesses ❌:

  • Smaller service catalog than AWS
  • Documentation sometimes confusing
  • Portal can be slow

Best AI Services:

  • Azure OpenAI Service — GPT-4, GPT-4o, DALL-E 3 directly use pannalam
  • Azure ML Studio — Drag-and-drop ML training
  • Cognitive Services — Pre-built AI APIs (vision, speech, language)

Best for: Companies already using Microsoft, enterprise AI, GPT-4 apps 🏢

GCP — The AI Powerhouse

Google Cloud Platform (GCP) — AI/ML king 🥉 (market share la, but AI la 🥇)


Strengths ✅:

  • TPUs — Google's custom AI chips, training 2-5x faster
  • Vertex AI — Best integrated ML platform
  • Google's AI research directly — TensorFlow, JAX, Gemini
  • BigQuery — Best data analytics
  • Kubernetes originated from Google (GKE is the best)

Weaknesses ❌:

  • Smaller market share — fewer jobs compared to AWS
  • Less services overall
  • Enterprise features still catching up
  • Smaller community

Best AI Services:

  • Vertex AI — Train, deploy, manage ML models
  • TPU v5 — Custom AI accelerators (cheaper than GPUs for large models)
  • Gemini API — Google's latest LLM
  • BigQuery ML — ML directly in SQL queries!

Best for: AI/ML focused teams, data-heavy apps, researchers 🔬

How to Choose? Decision Framework

💡 Tip

Quick decision guide:

🤖 "I want to build AI apps with GPT-4" → Azure (OpenAI partnership)

🧠 "I want to train custom ML models" → GCP (TPUs + Vertex AI)

🏢 "I want most job opportunities" → AWS (highest demand)

💰 "I have limited budget" → GCP ($300 free credits)

🔧 "I use Microsoft tools already" → Azure

📊 "I need big data + AI" → GCP (BigQuery + Vertex AI)

🌐 "I need maximum services" → AWS (200+ services)

Pro tip: Learn at least 2 cloud providers. AWS + GCP is a powerful combo for AI developers! 🎯

Real-World AI Company Choices

Famous companies enna cloud use pannraanga:


CompanyCloudAI Use Case
NetflixAWSRecommendation engine
OpenAIAzureGPT-4 training & serving
DeepMindGCPAlphaFold, Gemini
UberGCP + AWSDemand prediction
AirbnbAWSImage classification
SpotifyGCPMusic recommendations
SamsungAzureBixby AI assistant
PinterestAWSVisual search AI
Twitter/XGCPContent moderation
LinkedInAzureJob recommendations

Notice: Many large companies use multi-cloud — one provider la dependent aagaama irukkaanga! 🔄

Certification Roadmap

Cloud certifications — career boost ku:


AWS Path 📜:

  1. Cloud Practitioner (Beginner) — ₹8,000
  2. Solutions Architect Associate — ₹12,000
  3. ML Specialty — ₹25,000

Azure Path 📜:

  1. AZ-900 Fundamentals (Beginner) — ₹5,000
  2. AI-900 AI Fundamentals — ₹5,000
  3. AI-102 AI Engineer — ₹12,000

GCP Path 📜:

  1. Cloud Digital Leader (Beginner) — ₹8,000
  2. Associate Cloud Engineer — ₹15,000
  3. Professional ML Engineer — ₹15,000

Recommendation: Start with one cloud Fundamentals cert → then go for AI/ML specialty. 3-6 months preparation podhum. Free courses available on Coursera, YouTube! 📚

Prompt: Cloud Selection Helper

📋 Copy-Paste Prompt
You are a cloud solutions architect with expertise in AI/ML workloads.

I'm building an AI application with these requirements:
- Image classification model (ResNet-50)
- Expected 50,000 predictions/day
- Need to store 1TB of training images
- Team of 3 developers
- Budget: $500/month maximum
- Region: Asia (India preferred)

Compare AWS, Azure, and GCP for this use case:
1. Recommended architecture on each platform
2. Monthly cost estimate
3. Pros and cons for this specific use case
4. Your final recommendation with reasons

Key Takeaways

AWS Market Leader — 32% share, 200+ services, most documentation, largest community. Jobs highest demand dhaan. UI complex, pricing predict hard


Azure Enterprise King — 23% share, OpenAI exclusive partnership, GPT-4 direct access. Microsoft ecosystem integration seamless. Hybrid cloud best


GCP AI Powerhouse — 11% share, TPU custom chips (2-5x faster training), Vertex AI integrated platform, BigQuery + ML combination powerful. Cost slightly lower


AI Services — GCP: Vertex AI + TPUs. Azure: OpenAI Service + Cognitive APIs. AWS: SageMaker + Bedrock. Each different strengths


Free Credits Comparison — AWS 12 months free tier, Azure $200 credits + 12 months free, GCP $300 credits 90 days. All try-before-buy options


Pricing Similar — Small AI apps: ₹400-500/month cost same all three. GCP slightly cheaper, negligible difference. Pricing optimization per workload


Job Market Reality — AWS jobs most postings, highest salaries. Azure growing enterprise. GCP specialized ML roles. AWS + one more provider = strong resume


Recommendation Pragmatic — Learn AWS (career value). Start GCP (best AI tools, free credits). Add Azure (completeness). Multi-cloud engineers premium

🏁 🎮 Mini Challenge

Challenge: Deploy Same AI App on All 3 Clouds


Theory mattum illa — hands-on practice! Simple chatbot app deploy pannunga AWS, Azure, GCP la and compare!


Step 1: Simple Flask Chatbot Create Pannunga 🤖

bash
pip install flask openai
# Create app.py with OpenAI API integration
# requirements.txt — Flask, OpenAI
# Dockerfile for containerization

Step 2: AWS la Deploy Pannunga ☁️

bash
# EC2 instance create — t2.micro (free tier)
# Docker image push to ECR
# Run container on EC2
# Cost estimate: ₹500-1000/month

Step 3: Azure la Deploy Pannunga 🔵

bash
# Create App Service with Free tier
# Docker container push
# Configure environment variables
# Cost estimate: ₹0-500/month (free tier)

Step 4: GCP la Deploy Pannunga 🟡

bash
# Cloud Run serverless deploy
# No server management needed
# Auto-scaling enabled
# Cost estimate: ₹200-800/month

Step 5: Performance & Cost Compare Pannunga 📊

  • Latency check pannunga (which is fastest?)
  • Deployment time compare
  • Monthly cost estimate compare
  • Ease of deployment compare

Deliverable: Simple spreadsheet with comparison + screenshots from all 3 clouds


Time: 2-3 hours (if accounts already ready)

Skill Gain: Hands-on experience with all 3 cloud providers ⭐

💼 Interview Questions

Q1: AWS vs GCP — AI model training ku which better? Why?

A: GCP better — TPUs available, Vertex AI platform specifically designed for ML. AWS SageMaker also powerful but GCP TPUs training time 2-5x faster and cost-effective for large models. Depends on model size — small models: both same, large models: GCP.


Q2: OpenAI API use pannanum na which cloud choose pannu?

A: Azure — official OpenAI partnership, GPT-4o access guaranteed, same pricing as OpenAI, enterprise support. AWS also supports via Bedrock but Azure is direct and official.


Q3: Cloud cost optimization — top 3 tips?

A: (1) Spot/Preemptible instances use pannunga — 60-70% discount. (2) Reserved instances — 1 year commitment, 30% discount. (3) Auto-scaling setup — peak hours only scale up, off-peak scale down. Monitoring + billing alerts essential.


Q4: Multi-cloud strategy — when needed? Risks?

A: When needed: vendor lock-in avoid, best services from each cloud, disaster recovery. Risks: operational complexity, team training, cost management difficult, data transfer costs between clouds. Start single-cloud, then expand if needed.


Q5: Azure Hybrid Cloud — what is? When use pannudhu?

A: On-premises servers + Azure cloud combine. When needed: compliance (data must stay local), legacy apps modernization, disaster recovery, burst capacity. Azure best (Azure Stack, ExpressRoute). Expensive — large enterprise use only.

Frequently Asked Questions

AI projects ku best cloud provider evaru?
Depends on use case. GCP is best for AI/ML (TPUs, Vertex AI). AWS has most services. Azure is best if you use Microsoft tools. Beginners ku GCP recommend pannuven.
Free la try panna mudiyuma?
Yes! AWS 12-month free tier, Azure $200 credits + 12 months free, GCP $300 credits for 90 days. Moonu um try pannunga!
Jobs ku best cloud skill evadhu?
AWS — market share highest, most job postings. But multi-cloud knowledge (AWS + one more) best ah irukum resume la.
Certification venum ah?
Not mandatory, but helps. AWS Solutions Architect, GCP Professional ML Engineer, Azure AI Engineer — ivanga popular certifications.
🧠Knowledge Check
Quiz 1 of 1

AI model training ku best hardware acceleration evadhu GCP la?

0 of 1 answered