Cloud services are playing an important role for most of the online businesses. Cloud computing solutions offer an almost endless supply of identical machines that ran the same distros and responds the same was on the command line as in-house servers. And they can be upgraded easily for increasing demands.
Most of the cloud services offer very similar solutions in the same price range. Considering Ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04 is the same, what is the difference between choosing Google, Microsoft or Amazon devices? Major companies aside, there also many smaller cloud services in the competition. Here are 7 reasons to guide while choosing the best cloud service for you:
Table of Contents
OS versions
As mentioned above, Ubuntu 18.04 or 20.04 is most probably going to be exactly the same on any of the major cloud service providers. But there is a small chance that there may be slight differences in performance. Because of the little differences in the kernels, performance in the benchmark result may not be the same. If the cloud service provider offers its own version of the operating system, in most cases it is the best option to choose.
Benchmark results
There may also be small differences between architectures and the performance of the various components at the cloud service provider’s devices. By benchmarking your code on different cloud services and different devices, can guide you to find your best cloud service provider that offers the best price/performance ratio. Even though CPU cores and the amount of RAM look the same, some architectural differences may affect the code’s performance.
APIs
All major cloud services offer some useful and sophisticated APIs, such as Google’s Cloud Vision, Azure‘s Machine Learning service and Amazon’s GameOn. APIs can help you build your own codes. Choosing the API that suits your needs can help you with both building codes and getting a better performance from the device.
Desktop integrations
Desktop interfaces are useful tools. Google Cloud Platform services dump their data into Google Sheets, so if you are using Google G Suite, it will be much easier for you to access. On the other hand, Microsoft’s Excel can also import data from Azure directly or work with the Azure Analysis Services.
Location
All major cloud service providers have data centers all around the world. There are some simple criteria to choose the one that is best for you. For example, due to tax changes, prices may vary depending on countries. Another important thing to consider is the country’s sovereignty laws, which may be a huge problem. Also, it would be wise to consider the traffic, if a big group of your customers is in a country, it may be your first choice.
Exclusive features
Each major cloud provider offers a significant product to stand out. For instance, Google’s Firebase is a database that can automatically migrate the correct data to the right client. Microsoft’s Azure Cosmos DB is a database that can support multiple data models. Amazon’s S3 Glacier can store the data for the long term for a very low price.
Discounts
Most providers offer a pricing system, called “sustained use discounts” that calculates a discount for your usage. For example, when you run one of these resources for more than 25% of a month, it automatically gives you a discount for every incremental minute you use for that instance.