Topmost Cloud Platforms and Solutions in 2021
Cloud platforms are online systems offered by certain technology companies that provide data storage and data computing services on-demand to anyone who requires them. If you are a business or even an individual looking for a suitable cloud platform, there are no dearth of options.
When you read all the marketing content on company websites, every cloud platform might appear the same, which can be frustrating for anyone new to the cloud services space and is looking to migrate their IT assets to the cloud. However, every cloud platform is good at most things but better than its competitors at specific things. And it is the latter which should matter to you when deciding on the right platform for your specific needs. With that said, here is a brief overview of the top cloud platforms of 2021, which are as follows:
- Amazon Web Services (AWS)
- Microsoft Azure
- Google Cloud Platform (GCP)
- IBM Cloud
Amazon Web Services
Started in 2008, Amazon Web Services is the world’s foremost cloud service platform with over 30% market share. AWS offers IaaS, PaaS and SaaS but primarily functions as an IaaS provider and has an unmatched global reach in terms of data centres.
An ever-expanding cloud platform, AWS in 2020 has 175 cloud-based products and services from cloud storage and computing to analytics and extensive application support, including for IoT. The sheer range of services makes AWS an appealing choice for a wide variety of requirements.
Key AWS IaaS and PaaS services include Elastic Cloud Compute (EC2), which allows you to rent virtual computers; Elastic Beanstalk, a service that lets you orchestrates various other AWS services, Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3), which facilitates object storage through a web service interface; Amazon Lambda, a server-less computing platform and Relational Database Service (RDS).
AWS users can pay for the services in three ways: pay-as-you-go, save-when-you-reserve and pay-less-by-using-more.
Microsoft Azure
Microsoft’s Azure is an open-source (for client SDKs), Linux compatible cloud platform, which is the current №2 in terms of market share. Microsoft’s cloud strategy primarily takes the SaaS route, which makes use of the company’s existing suite of well-established enterprise products such as Office 365, Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, etc.
This, combined with the company’s Windows OS, which has ubiquitous enterprise presence in offices around the world, makes Azure cloud platform popular among enterprises. Azure does provide PaaS and IaaS services.
Microsoft Azure offers pay-as-you-go pricing for its users.
Google Cloud Platform
The third-largest cloud platform by market share and popularity, Google Cloud Platform’s strengths come from the company’s existing portfolio of ad sales, machine learning and analytics capabilities.
GCP’s cloud computing services are the same ones that power Google Search, Gmail, Drive and YouTube, which are some of the most widely used online services ever.
Google App Engine, its PaaS is a cloud computing platform for developing and hosting web-based applications, while Google Compute Engine is its IaaS, which allows users to launch virtual machines. Its SaaS is BigQuery, a serverless data warehouse.
One of GCP’s strengths is its open-source, container-orchestration system, Kubernetes, which allows users to port applications over to other infrastructures such as AWS and Azure.
IBM Cloud
The Big Blue, with its purchase of Red Hat in 2019, established its focus towards hybrid, multi-cloud focus. IBM plans to offer Red Hat across its product lines. Combine this with IBM’s historical support for open source software and IBM’s cloud service has the potential to be a leading player in the increasingly popular multi-cloud space.
IBM’s SmartCloud computing model uses hardware and virtual servers and delivers them through public, private and hybrid networks.
This concludes our list of leading cloud platforms in 2020. There are of course several other cloud platforms, including from leading IT companies such as Oracle Cloud Infrastructure, Cisco’s multi-cloud system and Alibaba Cloud, China’s leading cloud service provider among others.
Choosing a cloud platform and migrating is a critical step to give your business an edge in today’s digitally-driven consumer and business space. Once you have decided on the right cloud platform for your business, it is advisable to choose a reliable cloud migration service provider to chalk out a cloud migration strategy that is based suited for your requirements.
